Demand for banking products and financial services is growing at a significant rate across Asia. As a result, finance recruiting firms say demand for professionals in equity derivatives, commodities, foreign exchange and rates will remain robust, while areas such as structured credit will probably be less active.
HSBC is responding with plans to recruit about 500 staff to handle growing demand for banking and wealth management services. Recruits will include wealth managers, salespeople and 200 tellers to staff branches across Hong Kong.
In addition to frontline employees, HSBC plans to recruit about 200 employees to strengthen phone-banking services.
Also boosting its headcount is global financial services firm JPMorgan, which last month said it planned to add about 1,900 new employees in Hong Kong over the next three years. The firm employs about 3,200 staff in Hong Kong.
According to recruiters, there is also a lot of hiring activity in compliance and risk management, areas that look set to be strong this year as banks and financial firms keep a close eye on their operating processes and exposure to risk.
Job analysts said that while subprime associated job losses may affect Asia, there is still a shortage of financial professionals with five to 10 years experience across nearly all sectors.
This is largely due to a lack of recruitment and training during the Asian financial crisis and Sars, which left a void.