Wanted: job candidates who speak Putonghua.
In Hong Kong these days, more and more bankers need to be able to speak the language, given the increasing amount of business related to mergers and acquisitions, wealth management, corporate finance, new stock market listings and credit risk that involves mainland clients.
Mark O'Reilly, the managing director of recruitment firm Astbury Marsden Asia Pacific, said about 40 per cent of jobs in the finance industry required Putonghua skills, and that percentage was set to increase.
It is a trend that other headhunters are spotting.
"Investment banks didn't place so much emphasis on Putonghua in the past, now it's become extremely important," said Jerry Chang, a director of recruitment firm Barons & Company.
Private banks are courting high-net-worth individual clients from the mainland, where the number of millionaires has ballooned.
