THE arrival of private credit in Hong Kong is posing an existential threat to some of the city’s finance circles.

Banks are tiptoeing into job cuts. The number of people employed in the sector has fallen about 10 per cent from its 2021 high to 197,800. This industry still feels bloated, however, when stacked against the evaporation of equity and bond offerings.

China’s economic slowdown, which Hong Kong bankers can do nothing about, is in part to blame. But one does wonder where macro factors end and professional laziness begins. Well-paid bankers seem to have lost their appetite to do deals.