Surely, by now most UK private bankers are viewing Asia as the promised land? With more and more banks rolling out huge hiring sprees in a bid to increase assets under management in the region, hopping on the first plane to Singapore or Hong Kong seems like a no-brainer. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

The latest bank to unveil a wealth management recruitment bonanza in Asia is Barclays Wealth, which aims to add 200 private bankers over five years. Initially, it will relocate an undisclosed number of UK-based staff to help set up its new Hong Kong booking centre.

But Barclays, along with Credit Suisse and HSBC, is in the relatively unique position of having private bankers in the UK serving Asian clients. This is increasingly a prerequisite before an Asian private bank will even consider you, suggests Stephen Heal, CEO and founder of headhunters HB International.

“It’s not that there’s a resistance from UK bankers to move to Asia, but more that it’s too expensive and risky for an Asian bank to take on an experienced hire who cannot bring a book of business with them,” he says. “For example, we looked at relocating a senior banker who had built up a 300m book from scratch in the UK, but the feedback we received was that he was simply too expensive.”

Seasoned private bankers want to see guarantees or sign on bonuses, he adds, but Asian banks won’t shell out for people who are not on the ground, so there’s something of a Mexican stand-off in this respect.

Currently, a lot of private banks in Singapore – such as UBS, Credit Suisse, Clariden Leu, Julius Baer and Bank of Singapore – are recruiting to build their European client business. For these roles, understandably, they’re looking to hire relationship managers from Europe. But even here, the UK may lose out.

“A Swiss banker may have more of a value proposition as their banking approach, in terms of style delivery and execution are similar to that in Asia Pacific,” says Daniel Jones, managing consultant of private banking – Hong Kong and Singapore at Randstad. “UK private bankers are likely to find it a lot harder to move client assets out of the UK as opposed to Switzerland, due to tax regulations.”

Nonetheless, he adds that private banks in the region would welcome foreign talent “with open arms” and that expat packages are increasingly in-line with international standards – and less punitive from a tax perspective. What’s more, experience in Asia is an increasingly desirable thing to have on your CV, he suggests.

But Heal believes most UK bankers remain unconvinced by Asia’s appeal.

“The simple fact is that Asia is very difficult market,” adds Heal. “It’s very trading-orientated, aggressive and fast-paced, which doesn’t always suit traditional private bankers from the UK. However, Asian banks are generally open to recruiting more junior people, where the risks for the new employer are a lot lower.”

The other thing to note is that expats are typically the first to be singled for redundancy if things begin to go downhill, suggests Jones.

“The only stumbling block I could foresee for UK bankers wanting to make the move to Singapore is that if another downturn was to occur, foreigners would possibly be the first to receive a redundancy package,” he says.