Citibank published a recruitment advertisement on a local newspaper last week to attract executive trainees. The ideal candidates would receive comprehensive training in Singapore and Australia before taking up senior executive positions in the bank's China operations.

It was part of Citibank's business strategy in China to draw local professionals, said a source with its regional headquarters in Shanghai.

Local staff had taken over 90 percent of the bank's China arm as market demand for personal banking services had been on the rise following the country's accession to the World Trade Organization at the end of 2001, he said.

Many other foreign-funded banks in Shanghai have also taken out recruitment ads with local media to draw professionals.

Standard Chartered has recruited over 30 graduates from Chinese universities as management trainees. They are expected to take up managerial positions at the bank's Shanghai branch after a two-year training program overseas.

The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation has announced it would recruit more new graduates and experienced banking professionals in China in the coming years.

Local professionals account for over 92 percent of all the staff with the bank's China operation.

But the competition for talent with their foreign counterparts has not taken the local banking industry by surprise.

According to Zhou Lu, head of Bank of China's Shanghai Branch, the competition had existed for over 10 years and had actually spurred the boom in the financial market.

"To start with, local banks suffered a brain drain, but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as some senior professionals have taken up jobs with Chinese funded banks again after years of work with a foreign bank," he said.

To ensure an adequate supply of talent for the city's booming financial industry, the Shanghai municipal government decided early this year to train more senior professionals and encourage the local banking, security and insurance sectors to employ senior executives from overseas.

(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2003)