John Mullally, Associate Director - Financial Services, Robert Walters Hong Kong

"Last year there was a continued demand for relationship managers across all areas of commercial and corporate banking, with the SME (commercial banking) and local corporate sectors (corporate banking) the most active. Salaries continued to increase, with most candidates expecting and receiving an average 25 per cent salary increment when moving jobs. This trend is likely to continue in 2014.

"For the asset management industry, 2013 was a year of steady growth in Hong Kong. We anticipate greater demand for credit and fixed income investment professionals this year. This is particularly as international asset managers look to bolster their fixed income capability in order to cater to Chinese institutional investors, who have been granted greater freedom by mainland regulators to invest in international fund managers.

"In private equity we envisage the hiring of investment professionals to increase slightly. We suspect that the hiring of investor relations professionals and portfolio managers will remain at a similar volume to previous years."