"Chinese investment banks are spreading their wings. They will need to hire heavily"
Chinese securities firms are getting out of China. They are putting more capital into Hong Kong, building out Singapore, expanding their trading and wealth platforms, and are hiring aggressively from global rivals. Very good luck to them.
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Chinese firms no longer see Hong Kong as a simple investment banking outpost. They want broader franchises across credit, FX, commodities, wealth management, and institutional coverage. They are also hiring senior bankers, traders, and business leaders from international firms.
Huatai Securities’ H1 2026 results show the trend. Operating revenue jumped 45.9% to RMB23.66bn ($3.5bn) and attributable net profit rose by 54.9% to RMB11.69bn ($1.7bn), both records for H1. International business revenue increased by 91.1%.
The overseas subsidiaries of 34 mainland brokers held about HK$1.94 trillion ($250bn) in combined assets at the end of last year, up 32%, according to the Securities Association of China. At least seven mainland firms have announced capital injections into Hong Kong subsidiaries during 2026, including CITIC's RMB16bn ($2.4bn) H-share placement completed in August and Huatai's HK$10bn ($1.3bn) convertible financing for overseas expansion.
As they spread their wings overseas, Chinese banks will need to hire heavily. Hiring those with international experience helps, yes, but it is only one part of the puzzle – people can be hired much faster than an institutional operating model can be built. A trader can arrive in a few months, but building the governance, technology, risk infrastructure, and control culture that global firms have takes decades.
The big question for Chinese banks now, therefore, is whether governance and controls expand as quickly as capital, revenue, and headcount. It's easy to measure success in terms of legal tables. It's less easy to measure the implementation of controls.
Recent allegations involving CITIC and Guotai Junan underscore the need to ensure controls infrastructure is sound. Guotai Junan said in a statement that "the Company is in normal operation, all business activities are conducted as usual, and all operation activities are carried out in a compliant and orderly manner." Separately, CITIC said that "the Group is in normal operation, all business activities are conducted as usual, and all operation activities are developed in an orderly and compliant manner."
Nonetheless, Chinese banks will need to hire heavily in the area of controls. This can be a challenge. New hires are often accustomed to mature controls systems with clear rules, well-tested controls, escalation channels, and consequences of their actions. That infrastructure may not always be in place.
Global banks built these structures over decades of crises, regulatory cycles, and mistakes, but Chinese securities firms are trying to compress that experience into a much shorter period. They can catch up. But it will probably take more time (and investment!) than simply recruiting international talent, although this will be a start.
Charles Li is a pseudonym.
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