Currency Traders Wanted by Chinese Banks as London Desks Clear

  • Jobs open in China before IMF entry, yuan hours extension
  • `It's not easy finding people,' says China Merchants Bank

A man walks past a money exchange booth in Hong Kong.

Photographer: Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images
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From London to New York, currency traders are clearing their desks as business evaporates. In Shanghai, new positions stay unfilled for weeks and prized experts are encouraged to put in overtime.

Frank Zhang, head of foreign-exchange trading at China Merchants Bank Co. in the nation’s financial capital, has been trying to hire three traders since Oct. 16. The local talent pool is too small, he says. His counterpart at Industrial Bank Co., Ye Yuzhang, is sweetening the deal with extra money for those who work late.