Recruiting in China

OVERSEAS banks are competing heavily for talented workers in China's mainland this year to exploit their ability to offer a full line of retail services.

Citigroup Inc will add another 1,000 employees to its China payroll in 2007, boosting its domestic staff to 4,000, the company said.

In a single week in January, Citigroup opened three new consumer outlets, in Beijing, Tianjin and Shenzhen, as it continued to expand its network in key Chinese cities.

The world's biggest financial group now has 16 consumer operations and six corporate investment banking branches in the mainland.

"Given the importance, size and scale of China, Citigroup is taking a comprehensive approach to our expansion in China, and organic growth remains a key priority," Richard Stanley, chief executive officer of Citigroup China, said earlier.

The Bank of East Asia, whose net income rose to a record last year, will increase its mainland workforce by a quarter this year in a bid to boost profits from the market by more than 25 percent, Bloomberg News reported yesterday, citing Chairman David Li.

The Hong Kong-based bank, whose shares have doubled in the past year, will add at least 500 people in the mainland in 2007, Li said.

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp will employ another 1,000 people this year after hiring 1,000 additional workers last year.

The world's big names in financial circles are deepening their roots in the mainland's banking sector by establishing their own networks or teaming up with local counterparts as strategic investors.

They are vying for a slice of the country's US$1.9 trillion in household savings.

China's mainland allowed overseas banks to offer a full array of yuan services in December, a commitment required under its membership to the World Trade Organization.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers report in late 2005 forecast that overseas banks will employ more than 16,900 workers in the mainland by 2008, up from 6,654 at the time.