Hong Kong’s investment banking job market is showing signs of a recovery, with the number of licensed professionals in the financial hub ticking up as initial public offerings have staged a rebound.

The improved job landscape for investment bankers — with such jobs rising 0.5 percent in February from the end of 2023 — comes on top off growth in wealth and asset management jobs, according to analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence.

Licenses for wealth management, private banking and family offices, are up about 5 percent since 2023, while those for dealing in securities and futures were little changed, according to Securities and Futures Commission data.

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Stock listings are poised to double to more than $22 billion in 2025, boosting the ability of brokers to expand and rehire previously laid-off bankers, according to senior analyst Francis Chan.

“Hong Kong’s finance job market could feature continuously robust opportunities in wealth management and a higher rate of re-employment of bankers,” Chan said in the report. 

Citic Securities Co, together with its unit CLSA Ltd, China Merchants Securities Co and Haitong International Securities made most of the hires in the 12 months through February, Bloomberg News reported earlier. Almost 40 percent of them were ex-UBS or Credit Suisse employees.

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Meanwhile, HSBC Holdings Plc, Standard Chartered Plc, Citigroup Inc, UBS Group AG and DBS Group Holdings Ltd may increase hiring in wealth management and private banking to target Chinese mainland clients, according to the BI note.

The total number of licensed finance professionals reached 42,254 in February, up from 42,044 at the end of last year, BI said, citing data from the SFC.

Private bankers and wealth managers in the financial hub continue to command a compensation premium — a trend that appears more enduring, while the comparatively higher pay for investment bankers may prove short-lived, the report said.

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Private banking relationship managers in the special administrative region made as much as 46 percent more than those in Singapore, the mainland, and Japan, while the pay gap for team and department heads reached up to three times, according to a 2024 Hays Asia survey.

Hong Kong SAR investment bankers made 29-159 percent more at the analyst and associate level, and 39-90 percent more for directors and managing directors, the survey found.