HEADING into 2015, Shanghai is halfway through its timetable toward becoming an international financial center.

Continuing economic reforms and last year’s establishment of a pioneering free trade zone in the city are building blocks of the city’s 2020 goal. But people also matter in the process.

Shanghai is committed to improving policies regarding recruitment of professional talent and the creation of finance industry jobs to assist the city’s ambition, the Shanghai Financial Services Office said last month.

At the end of 2013, the city had 308,600 financial professionals. That was up 8.7 percent from the previous year, according to the office.

The city’s Five-Year Plan calls for 320,000 financial workers by the end of 2015, which would be slightly more than 1 percent of Shanghai’s population. By contrast, Hong Kong has up to 8 percent of its population employed in financial services. Beyond just numbers, there is the issue of professional quality. Authorities said Shanghai still lags in the depth of its talent pool.

Shanghai Daily sat down with Rio Goh, China head of Morgan McKinley, a global professional recruitment consultancy, to discuss the local talent pool and how it might be improved.

Morgan McKinley operates in 10 countries across key markets in Europe, APAC and the Middle East, working with both multinationals and local corporations across Financial Services, Commerce & Industry and Professional Services segments.

Rio Goh started his career in recruitment in the Netherlands and has been working on the Shanghai recruitment market since 2005 for the banking industry. Rio has extensive experience in senior level hiring and successfully established Financial Services practices for two other leading recruitment firms before joining Morgan McKinley this January.

Q: What financial talent is most needed in Shanghai?

A: Risk professionals. Financial institutions are not willing to take on too much risk as the economic and business environment becomes more complex and as banking, insurance, and securities regulators impose more controls. Banks have been recruiting in the areas of risk and internal controls for quite some time, and, recently, even pharmaceutical firms are starting to hire people for investigation and fraud monitoring. Linked to risk, of course, is compliance. That need has always been there. Another recruitment area that has been busy is relations management. For corporate banks, that means people dealing with clients.

Q: When financial institutions appoint people to senior positions, such as branch managers, those appointments usually need to be approved by regulators. Is that a problem?

A: It is a challenge if, at some point, everyone is looking for the same senior person, such as a chief risk officer, chief financial officer or branch head. The pool of talent is limited. If banks are going to appoint someone needing regulatory approval, they will maintain a certain level of quality. To be able to find the right people, you need be well-connected in the industry.

Q: How do financial institutions work with regulators?

A: There are two ways. If they get a potential professional for a chief risk officer, they could “drop” the name with the regulator for “soft” reference. If the China Banking Regulatory Commission response is positive, they would move into serious interviews. The other way is that they go through the whole interview process and apply for official approval at the final stage. This latter method is more common. But, as you know, banks have their connections and they often know in advance whether a professional would be suitable or not.

I think what regulators look at is similar to what banks look at. They want quality, reliable people. Even without regulatory involvement, banks would still filter out people who are not qualified.

Q: What can regulators do to improve the market for professional talent?

A: One positive impact would be to allow more financial products. Staffing levels grow with business demand. If institutions are allowed to introduce more products and expand their businesses, they will hire more people.

Q: Authorities have noted that professional talent returning to China or foreigners recruited overseas sometimes have trouble adapting to the local system. Do you see a conflict between Western and Chinese culture here?

A: Actually, the trend toward hiring local professionals has been underway since before the global financial crisis in 2008. But banks are still keeping a few senior positions filled by people from overseas headquarters. These are people who connect Shanghai branches and their headquarters. They are actually a benefit for the local branch. I think people are more flexible these days. It’s very difficult for a company to change its culture. We are trying to ensure that people who are hired have the challenge of learning new things. Throughout the nine years I’ve been working with the banking industry in Shanghai, I’ve placed only two expatriates.

Q: Do you think the current talent pool in Shanghai measures up to the city’s ambition as a world-class financial center?

A: The market here is professional-driven. We are short of good professionals. That’s especially true with risk and corporate relations functions. But in more traditional positions, such as financial operations, it’s quite difficult to find good people, especially managers who have 8-10 years’ experience with leadership qualities. The financial market really started to develop here in about 2004, so people who joined the financial industry then would have 10 years’ experience. But not everyone is ready to be a manager after 10 years.

The shortage actually forces us to work with professionals more closely at every stage in their careers. Morgan McKinley strives to become their “career ally,” providing comprehensive and honest support at every stage of their career path.

Q: You now oversee recruitment in various industries, including finance, manufacturing and technology. How do the recruitment needs of finance stack up with those in other industries?

A: Finance and accounting have been growing at the fastest pace because there are more companies looking for people in those realms. There is also a bigger talent pool out there. Banking is not as fast because it requires more qualifications. For us, recruitment in banking has improved this year. I would expect most of the banks to be adding head count next year.