Hong Kong’s banking talent shortage worsened by zero-Covid rules must be urgently addressed, industry association says
- The city has always had of a shortage of talent in the financial industry, but the pandemic has made it worse, says Mary Huen of Hong Kong Association of Banks
- Talent availability is a challenge that needs to be urgently addressed for the city to remain as a world-class international financial centre, Oxford Metrica report says
Hong Kong’s banks face a severe talent shortage, as stringent quarantine and travel rules in a relentless pursuit of the city’s zero-Covid policy have deterred visitors and cut off the supply of skilled labour for boosting the local workforce.
“Hong Kong has always faced a problem of talent shortage in the financial industry, but the pandemic has worsened the situation,” said Mary Huen Wai-yi, chairwoman of HKAB.
“It is hard to recruit new talent to come [to the city], while international banks have also found it difficult to relocate their existing staff from other areas to Hong Kong [due to the pandemic],” said Huen, who is also the Hong Kong chief executive of Standard Chartered Bank.
While the association has conveyed their difficulties to the government in a bid to address the problem, Huen said members were looking at stopgap solutions such as upskilling their existing staff to cover the talent gap in fintech, green finance and new energy developments.
Hong Kong’s zero-Covid pursuit, including a quarantine period of up to 21 days even for fully vaccinated inbound travellers, has raised the ire of international business executives. Hong Kong has stuck to such tough rules for almost two years and has shown no signs of relaxing them, while many countries including Singapore and Britain, which have opted for living with the virus, have relaxed their rules.