What mainland banks require most is a radical overhaul of their management systems, a meeting of banking representatives was told in Beijing.
'Chinese banks need a massive injection of competence. How about a merger between the Construction Bank and Bank of America? We need a bold approach,' said Gordian Gaeta, vice-president of international consultants Booz, Allen and Hamilton.
Mr Gaeta's comments were one of the many bright moments in what could easily have been a soporific session of the annual China Business Summit, on modernising mainland banks.
The audience was in a bullish mood after a lunch speech by People's Bank of China governor Dai Xianglong on his ambitious plans to overhaul the country's weak banking system.
After listening to Mr Dai, an articulate and humorous speaker who said non-performing loans accounted for just 6 to 7 per cent of total bank loans, you could be forgiven for thinking the moment was ripe to invest in some Chinese bank bonds.
The good mood persisted through the first speech, by Zhu Min, senior adviser to the Bank of China, the most foreign-oriented and profitable of the country's big four state banks.