Hong Kong Taps Banking Talent With Arabic And Islamic Finance Skills
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Hong Kong is looking to create a banking talent with expertise in Islamic finance and the Middle East. The country seeks to use this talent pool to attract companies and wealthy entities in the region that plan to invest in the city.
Hong Kong seeks banking talent with Arabic and Islamic finance skills
According to local reports, Hong Kong is planning to boost the convenience with which customers from the Middle East can open bank accounts and invest in the city. Seeking banking talent with expertise in the Gulf markets aims to improve these offerings.
Derrick Tan, a private banker that has been servicing wealthy clients across Asia for over two decades, said that Hong Kong sought “a long-term training programme or import talent to bring Middle East investors to the city.”
Tan said that Middle East customers had a challenging time creating personal bank accounts in Hong Kong. The Islamic finance industry globally is guided by the Sharia Islamic laws, and it currently has assets worth around $2.2 trillion. This sector is expected to grow and hit a valuation of $4.94 trillion by 2025.
Despite the strict rules around this sector, the demand for Islamic products like sukuk and takaful has increased following a combination of Islamic banks with sovereign wealth funds that are compliant with the Sharia laws, pension funds, asset management firms, family offices, and sovereign wealth funds.
Attracting Middle East investments to Hong Kong
Throughout the course of the year, some strategic players across the Hong Kong financial industry, such as Chief Executive John Lee Ka-Chiu, the CEO of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Eddie Yue Wai-man, and the Financial Secretary, Paul Chan Mo-po, have spearheaded the efforts to attract investments in the country and improve ties.
In June, the UAE central bank and the HKMA said they would be working together to foster cross-border payments and investments between the two countries. The CEO of HKMA, Yue, also secured an agreement deal with the central bank of Saudi Arabia to promote fintech projects in the two regions.
The Hong Kong financial industry boasts a massive talent that is well-versed in language and culture. This sector has a robust network that will serve clients within the mainland.
The active capital market across Hong Kong and the backup coming from China will attract investors across the Middle East. Tan has also said that the city does not have a pool of people that speaks Arabic and understand the requirements of the Islamic finance sector. Moreover, there is a limited number of people in the Hong Kong financial sector that understands the background of countries across the Middle East.
Because of these challenges, it has become increasingly challenging for local financial companies to cater to the needs of tycoons in the Middle East. As such, the present solutions include offering incentives to attract local talent while also sending Hong Kong youth to the countries to learn the guidelines and culture.
