Hong Kong’s banks back on the hiring spree after a decade of lay-offs as they prepare for virtual banking, Greater Bay expansion
- All four new virtual bank licence holders say they are looking to hire bankers as soon as possible as they prepare to launch their services
- Large banks like Standard Chartered are raising their headcount as they ready themselves to expand their services in the Greater Bay Area
Hong Kong’s recruiters are busy hiring again for the city’s banking industry after a decade of shrinking headcounts, as they prepare for expansion in the Greater Bay Area and a boom in virtual banking.
Large banks such as Standard Chartered, HSBC and DBS are hiring multilingual bankers with solid backgrounds in credit, information technology and compliance as they ready themselves to expand their services in the 11 cities that make up the bay area scheme, said Jerry Chang, managing director of recruiting firm Barons & Company.
One in five chief financial officers (CFOs) in Hong Kong plans to hire permanent professionals for their virtual banking services, while a third plan to take on temporary staff, according to recruitment consultancy Robert Half, citing a survey of 150 CFOs in the city.
“The best candidates are the ones who were previously stationed in mainland Chinese cities like Beijing or Shanghai for a few years,” Chang said. “These candidates would need to understand both Hong Kong and mainland [China’s] culture, corporate structures and connections with China government departments.”
Hong Kong’s monetary authority recently granted the first four of the city’s virtual bank licences to online lender WeLab, and three separate joint ventures led by Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of China (Hong Kong) and ZhongAn Online. Each of these licence holders told the South China Morning Post they were looking to hire bankers as soon as possible as they prepare to launch their services.