Stuart Gulliver, chief executive of the UK-listed bank, told the Financial Times this week that he hopes to either increase the bank’s 20 per cent holding in Chinese lender Bank of Communications, if given regulatory approval, or grow its mainland China branch network from 110 to about 800.

Gulliver has set HSBC Hong Kong chief executive Anita Fung the mandate of implementing this plan, which is tabled for the medium-term. Fung’s task includes trying to ensure HSBC is a dominant player in the Hong Kong-based offshore renminbi market, according to the report.

The bank joins peers DBS and Citi, both of which have made big announcements about mainland Chinese growth in recent days.

In its full year results on Tuesday DBS, Singapore’s largest bank, forecast “exponential growth” in mainland China. The bank said it would expand its headcount there by a quarter, or 400 staff this year. DBS’ net profit in China doubled to more than 500 million yuan ($79 million) in 2011, due to strong growth in corporate lending and trade finance.

Meanwhile last week Citi became the first foreign lender to gain approval to launch credit cards in China, a “significant milestone”, according to Asia chief Stephen Bird. Citi has offered co-branded credit cards with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank since 2003. The bank is hoping to tap China’s increasing consumption and desire for loans.

Banks have been battling for a slice of Chinese wealth for many years, but few have successfully entered the region where regulations strictly limit the presence of foreign banks. China is forecast to have 1.40 million HNW individuals with stock of wealth of nearly $9 trillion by 2015, according to estimates by Julius Baer.

However headhunters warn that although banks may make grand statements about adding hundreds of staff in Asia, numbers rarely add up. One told this publication: “The big numbers make great headlines, but if you go back to the bank a year later, most will not have hit their targets. Accessing the Chinese talent pool is probably going to be difficult.”

He also pointed out that while hires will be made, the number of redundancies may just keep headcount level. For example, HSBC is currently shrinking its Hong Kong headcount by 3,000, or 13 per cent of the region's workforce, as part of a broad-ranging global cost-cutting programme.