Wall Street banks struggle to hire local talent in China

Bloomberg

In the US, Wall Street’s biggest investment banks have been known to reject about 95 percent of job applicants. In China, it’s often the other way around.
Although international securities firms are stepping up efforts to expand in Asia’s largest economy, experienced local recruits tend to prefer state-backed companies such as China International Capital Corp and Citic Securities Co.
Even the promise of higher salaries doesn’t always work because local rivals offer the prospect of big one-time commissions.
The talent crunch complicates efforts by overseas banks to take advantage of China’s financial opening, which has continued apace amid the country’s trade war with America.
It’s another hurdle for international firms already facing stiff competition from domestic players as they battle for a slice of the $44 trillion industry.
“Many candidates have limited interest in joining what they view as third-tier institutions in China,” said Christian Brun, chief executive officer of search firm Wellesley Partners, who has hired bankers in Asia for two decades.
Foreign firms have a limited pool to hire from because they require language capabilities and an understanding of international compliance standards, Brun said. And the reticence of bankers from the top Chinese institutions to join them only adds to those pressures.
Brun and his team have tried to interview more than 120 candidates for positions at foreign banks in China since October. Less than a fifth were willing to even talk, he said, while those who did were often not the top-rated talent.
That’s a marked difference from the US or UK, where jobs at big name international banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, UBS Group AG and Morgan Stanley, are among the most sought after by financial professionals.
Foreign banks are still hiring and expanding in China, but the limited options are forcing them to make piecemeal hires by doing some recruiting locally, hiring on campus, growing
talent internally or even relocating staff from other Greater China teams.
UBS has moved 54 employees to China from Hong Kong since 2016, including 20 investment bankers, a person familiar with the matter said.
HSBC Holdings Plc said that headcount at its local securities joint venture, HSBC Qianhai Securities, has grown to over 170 in its Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai locations since it was set up in December 2017 with a team of 100.