Several private banks are planning to bolster their staff strength for managing Chinese and Hong Kong offshore wealth.
According to a Reuters report, the financial institutions seek to increase the number of employees by up to one-third. Most of the recruitment will be in Singapore, the report added.
Go deeper with GlobalData
A banker, familiar with the development, told the news agency: “As client queries from China and Hong Kong are going up, everyone is looking to lock-in (bankers) before supply runs out.
“Even when Singapore is under lockdown due to the virus, some banks have started reaching out to candidates over video calls as the pool of mandarin-speaking private bankers is not very big here.”
Currently, wealth managers such as UBS, Credit Suisse and Julius Baer have hundreds of bankers in Singapore and small teams in other locations for managing assets of clients in China and Hong Kong.
The banks now aim to increase hiring by up to 30% over the next year in these units.
Hiring private bankers in Singapore for managing assets of Greater China clients has been increasing due to the ongoing turmoil in Hong Kong.
Earlier this month, UBS unveiled plans to hire more than 300 people in Singapore over the next 18 months.
Citibank Singapore has also undertaken steps to bolster its wealth management business.
