HSBC needs more than 2,000 new staff in Singapore and China

The lender to add 200 employees in China yearly until 2016 and 1,000 in Singapore during the same period.

HSBC Holdings PLC said Tuesday it plans to hire at least 2,000 people in mainland China and Singapore over the next five years, as the U.K.-based banking giant continues its expansion in the Asian-Pacific region, the fastest-growing part of its business.

The bank, which moved its chief executive's office to Hong Kong from London in 2010, said it will add at least 200 staff in China annually until 2016, as well as another 1,000 people in Singapore over that time.

HSBC said it would add staff across the board, and didn't detail hiring plans for specific areas.

The bank currently has about 5,000 employees in China and 3,500 in Singapore.

In the past decade, HSBC has invested more than US$5 billion in mainland China. That includes eight billion yuan ($1.2 billion) worth of registered capital in HSBC China, its Chinese unit, as well as buying stakes in several Chinese financial institutions, including life insurer Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd. and Bank of Communications Co.

HSBC's business in China has grown rapidly in recent years. The bank now has around 100 outlets across two dozen cities, compared with fewer than 30 outlets in mid-2006, a year before China fully opened its banking industry to overseas competition.

View the full story in The Wall Street Journal.