Australia and New Zealand Banking Group plans to hire over 100 private bankers in Asia over the next 18 months as it continues its expansion in the region, Reuters reports.

"Over the course of the next 18 months, ANZ Private Wealth intends to recruit upwards from 100 senior private bankers... ANZ aims to become a super-regional bank in Asia Pacific,” a spokesperson for the bank is reported to have said.

The spokesperson did not give details on the how many private bankers are currently employed by ANZ, nor the countries for which the hires are intended. However, the news service notes that ANZ's private bank has regional booking centres in Hong Kong and Singapore, along with onshore private banking operations in Indonesia through ANZ Panin Private Bank.

According to the report, ANZ has placed numerous job advertisements in the Singaporean press in recent weeks.

Earlier this month ANZ bought bought the retail, wealth and commercial businesses from Royal Bank of Scotland in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong as well as the bank's institutional operations in Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam, for a reported $550 million. Together the acquisitions represent 54 branches, two million affluent clients, $3.2 billion in loans and $7.1 billion in deposits.

ANZ also plans to have a large presence in India and China.

News of ANZ’s Asia recruitment drive follows Standard Chartered’s announcement earlier this month that it intends to hire 850 relationship managers across Asia in the next 12-18 months. The RMs are to be hired for Standard Chartered’s priority banking operations in the region, which targets clients with over $100,000 of investable assets.

ANZ was unavailable for comment at the time of publication.