Recruiting in China

Royal Bank of Scotland, whose private banking entity in Singapore reported mass resignations by 70 employees recently, will continue to hire aggressively for its investment banking business in China, China Daily reported Thursday.

The bank would try to attract and retain talents in China and stick to its stated goal of becoming a top-five banking entity in the country, the newspaper said, citing John Hourican, chief executive of RBS' Global Banking and Markets operations.

The Edinburgh-based bank recently announced a barrage of new hires in China in a bid to beef up its investment banking business. Among the key appointments, the bank named Raymond Yin, who joined RBS from JP Morgan where he was chief representative and head of general industrials for the China market, as the co-head of investment banking for China.

The move comes in the backdrop of a battle for banking talent in Asian countries, especially in the private and investment banking sectors. Citigroup recently appointed Rodney Tsang, a senior investment banker with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as co-head of its China investment banking team.

RBS is now 70-percent owned by the British government.