Bank internships favor children of VIP clients  

银行实习靠父母资产排队 寒门子弟拼不过一张VIP卡

(ECNS) – While some students have to jump through hoops to get internships at banks, others easily score the goal with their parents' bulging bank balances.

Many banks in China have openly said recently that children of VIP clients will be first in line for internship opportunities.

A bank official in Beijing told the Securities Daily that the threshold for a summer internship is a fixed deposit of 500,000 yuan ($80,000). The bigger the deposit, the better the chances, he said, as vacancies are limited.

And that's only for students who plan to use the internship as a stepping stone to their overseas studies.

"If you want an internship that hires on," the bank official said, "we're looking for hundreds of millions in deposits at least."

Still, competition is quite fierce for the two-month, sometimes less-than-a-week, internships.

Parents and children are aware of how much emphasis overseas universities put on related internships for finance majors. Students can even get recommendation letters from high-ranking bank officials – all about polishing their resumes.

For banks, it's a strategy to lure wealthy customers.

"Providing customized services to those who want to go overseas to study has been a trendy business," a banking expert said. "Plus, rich clients are a valuable asset for banks, as they have huge demand for wealth management."

Students from a less privileged background are complaining about the unfair competition.

"Getting an internship at banks has become harder and harder," a first-year graduate student at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing said. "And I feel like I'm losing at the starting line."