Singapore - Swiss bank Julius Baer and London-based Standard Chartered are taking their pick of top financial talent as competitors continue to shed staff throughout Asia.

The private banking sector is still hiring as Julius Baer and Standard Chartered stick to their expansion plans in Asia despite the financial crisis. Standard Chartered will be "aggressively hiring" more senior managers and private bankers for its Asia's private banking business, which will serve wealthy customers, its Asia CEO Jaspal Bindra told Bloomberg yesterday. While he did not reveal the number of employees the unit will hire, the bank has started boosting its senior consumer banking management team with "five to six very heavy hitters".

The UK bank, which makes most of its profit in emerging markets, had posted an 8.3% rise in second-half net income last month. "It's the first time in our history that we're getting people from big consultants to big banks wanting to join us because we have stood out a little bit with our performance," Bindra said. "We'll probably continue to see a net headcount addition this year."

On a much smaller scale, Julius Baer has snapped up two senior relationship managers from rivals Goldman Sachs and UBS as it expands its business in Asia. The bank had said previously it would add over 100 employees to its ranks by 2010-2011. It currently employs more than 200 people in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Wilfried Kofmehl, head of Julius Baer Southeast Asia, told Reuters that it will continue to hire experienced bankers even though hiring has slowed due to the financial crisis. "We are actually in discussions with a few other very senior people in the market," he said. "Our growth plans are still on track. 2009 is a tough year but we feel we can manage."

Competitors such as UBS and Citigroup have cut jobs in Asia while Societe Generale recently said it will cut around 10% of staff from its private banking arm in Asia excluding Japan.