A senior figure at the bank reiterated the lender's recently-stated desire to ramp up hiring in Asia, highlighting how the war for talent isn't dying down.

HSBC wants to boost the number of its private bankers in Asia by as much as two thirds in five years’ time and double assets under management in eight years, a senior executive is quoted as saying. The comments follow the bank’s statement in August that it planned a hiring spree.

The Asia private bank intends to add 700 people by 2022 from a headcount of 1,100 at the end of 2017. The increase will add staff in various roles including relationship managers, product specialists and family wealth planners, Siew Meng Tan, Asia-Pacific head of private banking was quoted by Reuters as saying.

At the end of August, HSBC Global Private Banking announced it ss planning to recruit up to 240 new employees by early 2019, which is an increase of around nine per cent to its private banking teams. It particularly aims to add “scale and capacity” in client-facing and investment-focused areas such as relationship management, investment counselling, and investment products and services management. The majority of new hires will join in Asia-Pacific as the bank continues to focus its strategic plans to invest in its Asia wealth business. In order to support private banking growth, around 70 new colleagues are expected to join this year in Hong Kong and some 40 in Singapore.

The UK/Hong Kong-listed lender has, like many international peers, focused more of its efforts on the Asian market in recent years because of the rapid growth of an affluent middle class in the region. The private banking arm is in robust shape: HSBC recently said private banking’s adjusted pre-tax profit for the half year to 30 June stood at $190 million, up from $144 million in the same period a year ago. The global private bank oversees $330 billion assets, and Asia accounts for 39 percent of the total, making it the single largest market for the bank, the Reuters article said.

The bank’s hiring drive also underscore why some executive search and industry figures have branded the market for talent in Singapore, Hong Kong and other places as “crazy”, with shortages of talent leading to sharp salary rises. 

At the end of August, HSBC Private Banking created the new role of market head for China and Taiwan, appointing former Credit Suisse man and industry veteran Edwin Lim to the role. Lam will lead the business for these two markets across all booking centres in Asia, including onshore China, onshore Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, the private bank said. He will be based in Hong Kong.