A team of nine on BNP Paribas' China wealth management team has quit the French bank en masse for Swiss rival, Credit Suisse.

A team of nine from BNP Paribas' China wealth management division has quit en masse for Credit Suisse, weeks after the French bank lured a team of four from its Swiss rival, underlining the ongoing  battle for talent in Asia. 

The Hong Kong-based team led by Eddy Sze, a former relationship manager, joined Credit Suisse this month. Sze becomes managing director and market leader for the newly-created Greater China team, WealthBriefingAsia understands. 

"Eddy Sze and 8 other relationship managers, marketing assistants and advisors have left the bank recently, as a result of natural turnover and the fight for talent in the private banking industry," confirmed a spokeswoman for BNP Paribas.

She added that the bank has been making big strides into the region. "BNP Paribas Wealth Management has an aggressive growth plan for Asia and has been actively recruiting," she said.

Around 50 new joiners have joined or committed to join BNP Paribas Wealth Management so far this year, she added, including the head of non resident Indians for North Asia, Akshay Jaitly, who joined from Axis Bank.

Last month BNP hired a China team of four led by Ivan Ching, who all joined from Credit Suisse. The team included two relationship managers and two assistant relationship managers. None of the team of nine are replacements for the four defections.

Credit Suisse declined to comment. 

Private banks are vying for a slice of wealth in Asia, where the population of high net worth individuals grew 9.7 per cent to 3.3 million in 2010, exceeding Europe’s for the first time and placing the region as the world’s second-biggest market after North America, according to the 2011 Asia-Pacific Wealth Report released by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Capgemini. Asia-Pacific HNW wealth, which overtook Europe’s in 2009, gained 12.1 per cent to $10.8 trillion in 2010, compared with Europe’s $10.2 trillion.