Hurry, ING Vysya Bank is hiring relationship managers at a starting salary of Rs 10 lakh plus (Rs 1 million plus).

ABN Amro Bank, Citibank and Barclays Bank are understood to have recently hired a handful of relationship managers, some poached from the life insurance industry.

Salaries for relationship managers are in the range of Rs 7-15 lakh (Rs 700,000-1.5 million), according to a study undertaken by HR consultants Hewitt.

Relationship who? Well, these are expected to be smart young men and women, with excellent communication and presentation skills, who will keep in constant touch with the bank's deep-pocketed clients. In effect, the relationship manager's job is to ensure that the clients are being served.

The fine print is that relationship managers are expected to bring in Rs 40-50 crore (Rs 400-500 million) of business from rich clients every year. In banking jargon, this is called adding assets.

"It is a do-able target, and has been achieved by the two relationship managers we recruited last year," says Steven Billiet, country head (private banking) at ING Vysya Bank.

Highly networked individuals fit the bill. They must also have a financial background. After all, they need to talk to CEOs, lawyers, doctors and other such moneybags in their own language.

They are key to private banking, as a regional head of Citigroup puts it: "Today, relationship managers are being poached because of what they know. Tomorrow, like in Singapore, they will be poached for whom they know. As in developed countries, clients tend to move with the relationship manager."

When that happens, individual banks' private banking portfolios will be affected.

"Growth in private banking in India will be substantial over the next 30-50 years," points out Alan Mudie, chief investment officer (international private banking) at BNP Paribas.

He feels that India will become the third largest centre for private banking by 2050 as per capita income increases 35 times over the next 40-50 years.

It is not banks alone that are affected by the aggressive poaching. Life insurance companies have also lost their sales managers to foreign banks.

"We have lost seven sales managers to banks like Citibank and ABN Amro," says the CEO of a leading life insurance company. With insurance sales managers earning less than Rs 5 lakh (Rs 500,000) a year, a bigger package is attracting many of them.

"We are recruiting 10 more relationship managers from various sectors, and are ready to offer them a starting package of Rs 10 lakh, provided they have five to eight years experience in the financial sector," says Billiet.

ING Vysya Bank manages Rs 850 crore (Rs 8.50 billion) in assets for 450 wealthy families. "The growth rate is about 30-40 per cent and that is attracting a lot of newcomers," he adds.

Private banking targets individuals having wealth of at least Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million). Not more than 50 per cent of the market has been tapped.

"We have lost people because there is a shortage of manpower with product knowledge and marketing skills," says Abhay Aima, country head (equity and private banking group) at HDFC Bank.

People are not available here and training is needed. BNP Paribas intends to outsource training or undertakes it internally, says the bank's private banking (SE Asia) head, Michel Longhini.

"Training is very important as we look for someone so that our clients are not treated as money-making machines," he adds.

As the pool of talent is fairly small in India, poaching is the ideal solution. "Few entities today handle direct equity, and this tends to attract the competition," points out Aima. While HDFC Bank has lost a few managers, Aima adds that the private bank has not seen many clients leave.

"We have a good product and our clients tend to stay with us. However, they do face an issue having to start a-new life with another relationship manager," he says.

Individual wealth in Asia is expected to shoot up to $ 8 trillion by 2007, up from $ 4.8 trillion in 2000, according to an international survey.

Asia's projected 67 per cent jump in wealth as published by Merrill Lynch/Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, is set to surpass North America's growth rate of 39 per cent to $ 10.4 trillion and Europe's 46 per cent growth to $ 12.3 trillion.