HSBC has become the latest global bank to underline the challenges of operating in Hong Kong’s strict Covid regime, highlighting potential difficulties in hiring and retaining staff.
Hong Kong’s persistent pursuit of its so-called «dynamic zero-Covid» policy – as opposed to the increasingly popular decision to live with the virus – continues to place pressure on the financial sector, this time for the city’s largest lender.
According to HSBC, the varying measures and restrictions in response to the pandemic have created different operational challenges, noting that the «diverging approaches to future pandemic waves could prolong or worsen supply chain and international travel disruptions».
«The evolving Covid-19 restrictions in Hong Kong, including travel, public gathering and social distancing restrictions, are impacting the Hong Kong economy, and may affect the ability to attract and retain staff,» the bank said.
Banker Exodus
HSBC is the latest to join a growing number of banks that have expressed hiring challenges or undergone staff relocation.
A handful of executives at J.P. Morgan, for example, have shifted away from Hong Kong mostly to the bank’s London office. Rival American lender Citi also relocated a number of its senior equities staff to Singapore.
«Hong Kong has always faced a problem of talent shortage in the financial industry, but the pandemic has worsened the situation,» said Standard Chartered Hong Kong chief executive Mary Huen Wai-yi last month.
«It is hard to recruit new talent to come, while international banks have also found it difficult to relocate their existing staff from other areas to Hong Kong.»
