(Yicai Global) Aug. 25 -- A multitude of talent attraction schemes over the past several years have seen a two-way flow of Chinese mainland and Hong Kong talents of the financial industry, and a large influx of mainland talents into the Hong Kong market.

"Financial talents accounted for one third of the talents recruited by the 'Quality Migrant Admission Scheme' over the past eight years, which shows the popularity of financial professionals in Hong Kong," Cong Kangyi, General Manager of GBjobs.com, told Yical Global at a recent cross-border expo on financial financing and recruitment. Since the "Quality Migrant Admission Scheme" and the "Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals" were kicked-off, Chinese mainland talents working in Hong Kong has totaled 86,000 people, of whom a large proportion are financial practitioners, said Cong.

Hong Kong, as an international financial center, has many of the world's leading large financial institutions, which has caused a shortage of financial professionals in China's special administrative region due to high demand, Cong Kangyi continued.

With the increasing number of domestic enterprises seeking listing in Hong Kong, investment banks have become the main financial institutions that attract talents from the Chinese mainland. Among the financial enterprises in Hong Kong, investment banks have also reported the largest increase in their number of employees from the mainland over the past decade. Some investment banks reported their number of employees from the Chinese mainland even grew 20 percent in the period.

"However, in general, financial talents still account for a relatively small part in the export of Chinese mainland talents to Hong Kong or overseas markets," Cong said.

As of the end of 2015, the number of employed persons in Hong Kong was 3.78 million, of whom employees of the financial sector, accounting for 6.7 percent, reached 250,000. From 2012 to 2016, the nominal salary index of the financial industry ranked first among all industries for five consecutive years in Hong Kong.