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Shanghai companies eye Wall Street talent

By Zhou Yan (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-16 13:43

Financial institutions in Shanghai are likely to start snapping up jobless Wall Street professionals by the end of this year.

Financial professionals of Chinese heritage and Chinese people studying or working in the United States meet with recruiters for companies from Shanghai during a recruitment event in Queens, New York, December 13, 2008.  [Agencies]

Some local fund and securities companies, led by Shanghai financial working commission, may go to Wall Street later this year to hunt for possible recruits, according to a top executive from Shanghai-based fund company Huaan Fund.

"Although the city is becoming more of a player in the global financial market, we have a dearth of employees with global financial expertise," said a senior official at the firm surnamed Xie.

He added that the company recently received a notice from the local financial working commission, but a detailed schedule has yet to be arranged.

Huaan started recruiting foreign talents for top positions in 1999. "Investment managers and legal talents from Wall Street investment banks would be our major targets. Talents with overseas backgrounds would help boost our competition in the market," Xie said.

Some fund managers also said that the salary expectations of top Wall Street professionals may fall given the current global financial turmoil.

The local financial working commission could not be immediately reached for comment.

"Operational efficiency is critical to support portfolio realization in the financial sector, and Wall Street talent has experience of the ups and downs in financial sector business," said Jenny Li, managing director of Hewitt Greater China, a human resources consulting firm.

Domestic companies are short of talents with leadership who can compete in a globalized economy.

"The introduction of Qualified Domestic Institutional Investors along with the opening up of renminbi business to foreign banks has provoked a huge demand for financial talents in product development and risk control," said Christine Cheng, practice head of accounting and finance at a staffing sources firm Manpower China.

But Li warned Chinese financial players that they have to align their business strategies when hunting for various talents on Wall Street.