Credit risk candidates are particular sought after because, as the economy recovers, international banks want to compete with Chinese commercial banks in lending to large local enterprises and multinational corporations.

“In the last six to nine months, we have seen an increasing demand from foreign banks recruiting credit risk management professionals,” notes Monica Pei a Senior Consultant at Consult Group.

ABN AMRO, for example, is hiring a credit officer in Shanghai to manage front-to-end credit risk, including counterparty financial analysis, determination of internal risk rating and monitoring of counterparty performance to minimise credit losses.

Meanwhile, the ambition of established foreign firms to compete with local banks will require them to further refine and improve risk management processes.

“Banks like Citi and Standard Chartered wish to dominate the local market and have classified their credit risk teams in terms of the corporate portfolios, like local corporate, MNC, SME, etc,” says Stephen He, banking & finance division senior consultant at Consult Group.

Recruiters say other banks hiring heavily in risk include Hang Seng Bank and DBS.

Monthly compensation for risk management professional varies. “The pay for a credit-risk vice president at a large foreign bank ranges from 25k yuan to 40k yuan,” says He, while some getting paid 50k yuan.

Because international banks have a more prudent and strict risk management system than local ones, they tend to recruit risk management officers from other global players. “Since the local and foreign banks have different rating systems, there is relatively low percentage of talent movement between foreign banks and local ones,” adds He.