JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s China head said its expansion in the country is taking longer than expected, as the US bank races to take advantage of China’s $60 trillion financial sector.

“It will be a longer journey than we would wish to gradually build up scale and reputation to do business,” JPMorgan’s China Chief Executive Officer Mark Leung said in a Bloomberg TV interview at the bank’s annual Global China Summit in Shanghai on Wednesday. “But, we’re invested and we’re going there and we’re progressing well.”

Wall Street banks had been gearing up to cash in on China opening its financial sector to foreign firms in recent years. However, a sluggish Chinese economy and intense domestic competition have hindered some of those efforts and pared ambitions.

Leung said one way JPMorgan hoped to distinguish itself from domestic peers in the Chinese market was on cross-border deals and transactions. “Going cross-border as the differentiator is the key,” he said.

There’s also still healthy volume of initial public offerings onshore in China and Hong Kong, he added.