The bank plans to hire around 100 client advisors this year and next, taking headcount in the Asia wealth management arm up to around 240, a spokesperson confirmed to WealthBriefingAsia. The move is being spearheaded by Andrew Cohen, chief executive of the private bank in Asia. 

Peter Flavel, CEO of JP Morgan Private Wealth Management in Asia, who was hired just over a year ago from Standard Chartered, has also been building his team of senior bankers serving the high net worth. This week the bank announced the recruitment of four senior bankers including Edwin Lim, Singapore's DBS Private Bank's North Asia chief. A source close to the situation said further additions would be announced soon.

The US bank joins a number of peers making aggressive recruitment sprees in the region, where the number of millionaires grew 9.7 per cent last year to surpass those in Europe for the first time on record, according to the Merrill Lynch/CapGemini World Wealth Report published this month. 

Competitors of the bank including RBS Coutts, Barclays Wealth, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered, HSBC Private Bank and BSI have all announced large-scale recruitment pushes over the last year. 

The news will mean yet more competition for talent in the region, where the hiring battle for the best bankers is growing fierce. 

Shayne Nelson, chief executive of Standard Chartered Private Bank in Asia, told this publication this week that one the biggest challenges in the region is getting the right talent, training them and retaining them. He said that the bank has started recruiting laterally from the corporate and asset management side as well as other private banks. The bank is hiring from other regions outside of Asia too.