To quote an example, Laine Santana hails from the Philippines and has worked for HSBC for 13 years.

She is on a two-year secondment at the Hong Kong headquarters where she works as senior group communications manager.

'In Manila, I used to head the communications team,' she said, adding that it was a team which she created eight years ago. Here she focuses on news management, co-ordinating with the personal finance department and media, and co-ordinating news around the region.

'Hong Kong and Asia are really a big market. I also assist in investor relations.'

Having spent business trips and holidays in Hong Kong in the past, Ms Santana was familiar with the city when she moved here with her nine-year-old son.

'The bank helped with his education and our adjustment to Hong Kong,' she said. Her two-year secondment finishes in the summer and she is debating whether to stay or go.

Working in Hong Kong with 8,000 staff members was a far larger operation than in Manila she said. 'It taught me to be bolder, to come up with new initiatives,' Ms Santana said.

HSBC's head of human resources, Asia-Pacific, Jasbir Pannu, said that one of the benefits of working in different locations was the exposure to different technology. 'Technically, things are done very differently in different parts of the world.

'The other thing is primarily immersion in a different culture, which broadens their horizon, the way they see things in terms of interaction skills,' she said.

'The other one is the networking. The fact that you have been around and you know your counterparts, 'doing business' is easier because you have been with these people for a while. You can appreciate some of the nuances, or some of the challenges, these people are facing, and when you are on the other side you can work better. You can facilitate how the other side works with you on a day-to-day basis.'

Ms Pannu also said that one important issue was reintegration when employees returned to their home country, and ensuring that human resources stayed regularly in touch with the employee.

HSBC has three types of international assignments. The first type is international secondment which lasts usually between one and three years, but can be extended if the bank feels there is a business need. Then there are short-term assignments. These can be anything between two weeks and eight months, and are more flexible in terms of length.

Finally, the international manager programme is tailored for employees who come into the firm and who are expected to maintain an international career at the bank, moving around different offices regularly.

'It's very much the bank's strategy that we are globally represented, that we have a footprint in the developing markets as well. For this kind of expansion, we cannot do it without the human capital required to grow,' she said.

There are 500 employees in HSBC offices in Asia involved in the first two programmes.

Ms Pannu said she hoped that number could soon be doubled. The jobs are advertised on the bank's intranet system, so that staff members can apply.

Meanwhile, rival Citibank also has three kinds of exchange programmes, according to Hong Kong human resources director Maisie Lam.

The Excel Programme is mainly for middle management staff to accelerate their potential with an eye towards preparing them to act as deputies to country business managers in each market.

'We really make an investment in them by sending them overseas for two years. Through self-learning, classroom study and job assignment, they accelerate their learning. It's quite intensive,' Ms Lam said.

Citibank also organises the Expo, short for 'exposure', directed at junior to middle management staff. The aim of this programme is to give employees, who have never been overseas, the chance to work in a foreign country, usually for about six months.

Then there's the rarer Exchange Programme, which involves a direct swap of an employee with the same calibre from two countries.

'We have to identify a country where there is someone with the same kind of aspiration, who has worked in the same capacity, and we could actually do a swap. In this way, there would be less disruption to the sending and receiving country. But, of course, this arrangement means finding the same calibre of individual. And this again is for six to 12 months,' Ms Lam said.

Number of HSBC employees on international assignment throughout Asia: 500