China Hires Foreigners to Manage Forex Reserves
by Reuters | 01 Dec 2009
China has kicked off its first global hiring campaign for money managers to
help invest its $2.3 trillion of foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest
stockpile, an official said.
The State Administration of Foreign Exchange is seeking to improve returns on
its bulging reserves and it recognizes that the tumult in global financial
markets has left many bankers looking for new jobs, a SAFE official told
Reuters.
"It is time for us to hunt talent from overseas financial markets, as the
post-crisis economic outlook becomes clear to financial professionals and their
institutions," the official said.
He declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to media.
SAFE posted job advertisements on its web site in October for positions ranging
from portfolio managers to research staff, though the hiring campaign has
remained low-key so far.
Candidates are expected to have working knowledge of both Chinese and English,
plus at least two years of work experience with well-known financial
institutions.
The official declined to say how many foreigners SAFE was hoping to bring
aboard. Analysts said that the forex agency's global hiring campaign was part
of its drive to diversify China's currency reserves, a long-standing official
goal.
"With our foreign exchange reserves growing, the team of staff that manages the
reserve assets should also be strengthened," said Ding Zhijie, a professor with
the University of International Business and Economics.
The composition of the reserves is a state secret, but analysts estimate that
at least two-thirds are invested in dollar-denominated securities, which means
China stands to lose a lot from any decline in the dollar's value.
But any diversification away from the dollar has been proceeding very
gradually, not least because Beijing has continued to buy dollars to prevent
the yuan from rising since it was effectively repegged to the dollar in the
middle of 2008.
"Actually, SAFE is moving at slower pace than expected in the direction of
employing overseas talents," an economist at an international bank in Hong Kong
said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
China Investment Corp, the country's $300 billion sovereign wealth fund, has
staged two rounds of global hiring since its inception in 2007.
SAFE employs about 200 reserve managers, 80 percent of whom hold master's
degrees or higher and 40 percent of whom hold internationally recognized
professional certificates, local media have reported
