Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered (Stanchart) might not be able to ink an agreement to buy a stake in a Chinese bank by the end of this year as it had earlier projected, a bank executive said Tuesday, reported Shenzhen Daily on Wednesday.

"I may run out of time, but the intention is still there. We're relatively advanced," said Mike DeNoma, group executive director for the group's consumer banking division.

"Whatever time pressure people thought used to exist, has been artificial.

The starting gate hasn't really started. There's not massive amounts going on," DeNoma said.

He said foreign acquisitions of Chinese banks would not begin in earnest until 2007 when the country's World Trade Organization obligations come into effect.

Standard Chartered had said in May that it hoped to buy a stake in a Chinese bank by the end of this year, one that planned to restructure and become more international.

Chinese banks are allowed to sell 25 percent of their shares to foreign partners. A single foreign bank can hold a maximum of 20 percent of any one Chinese bank. The leading contender for Standard Chartered is widely reported to be China Everbright Bank, the country's sixth-largest commercial lender.

(Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)