Credit Suisse is one. It produced its first batch of nine graduates from a fast-track development programme last week.

Participants had between three and five years' work experience in financial services but are basically new to private banking, said its regional head of private banking, Mr Marcel Kreis.

The training takes participants - who are recruited internally and externally - through the bank's culture and its array of financial products with on-the-job mentoring by senior bankers.

Some banks like to keep their options open by not recruiting just from the finance sector.

About half the participants in a new UBS programme started last year have had no banking experience.

One entrant had been a manager with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and another, a pharmaceutical sales representative. Lawyers, consultants and engineers have also joined.

UBS' head of wealth management, Mr Tee Fong Seng, said: 'The single most sought-after trait in a wealth manager, provided he is technically competent to begin with, is his ability to listen to the client.'

HSBC developed a training programme in April, which was designed to attract mid-career workers, aged 38 to 50, to work as relationship managers in its premier banking service. This service caters to people with at least $200,000 in investments.

The programme has attracted entrepreneurs and professionals from the media, airline and services industries.

'Being seasoned professionals with established careers, mid-career individuals possess the maturity, life experiences and people skills,' said HSBC Singapore's head of consumer banking, Ms Wendy Lim.

The Boston Consulting Group said Singapore-based private banks will have to treble the number of relationship managers or personal advisers, from 2,000 to 6,000 over the next five years.

While there is an acute shortage of high-calibre managers, bankers say poaching staff from competitors is unhealthy for the industry.

Rather, it is talent development that will be a key part of their strategy to capture a share of the newly-created Asian wealth.

The solution lies in building a pool of talented bankers, even if it means having a growing number of mid-career converts fill the ranks.

'The changing demographics in the market serve to fuel competition for talent,' said Standard Chartered Bank general manager Ngo Min Ying, who added that about 30 per cent to 50 per cent of its priority banking relationship managers are mid-career professionals.

'They should ideally have their own investment portfolio, show keen interest in the industry and also have an aptitude for the services industry.'