There is at least one part of embattled banking giant Citigroup that is hiring, not firing. The firm is expanding its Asia Pacific transactional-banking headcount in a bid to grab market share in bread-and-butter sectors like custodianship and trade finance.

Anthony Nappi, regional head of global transaction services, recently told The Australian newspaper that his team is one of Citi’s fastest growing divisions.

Corporate, public sector and financial clients are increasing their use of Citi’s transactional services, according to a spokesman for the firm. “Given the growth in the business, we will be hiring across the region and in all major areas of transaction banking - cash management, securities and fund services, and trade services,” he adds.

The bank would not reveal how many new recruits it needs, but it has vacancies in all its 18 Asia-Pac locations, especially in the transactional hubs of Hong Kong and Singapore.

So far so good at Citi, but what’s the rest of the employment market like in transactional banking? In keeping with its vanilla reputation, careers in the sector are safe, but hiring isn’t spectacular.

Transactional bankers escaped some of the savage retrenchments that afflicted their more glamorous i-banking colleagues. “This was due to a number of reasons, such as it being relatively low risk, with low capital requirements and it seems to offer more sustained and stable revenue,” says James Carss, director, banking & financial services, Hudson Hong Kong.

Volumes for generalist jobs within trade finance are lower than last year because deal volumes have shrunk, says Angela Kuek, Carss’ counterpart in Singapore. “But specialist trade professionals – in fields such as receivables financing, supply-chain financing, trade risk and trade asset-management – are still sought after,” she adds.

Custodian bankers are keeping busy because when markets are volatile, clients demand more frequent and urgent information about the state of their investments, says Pan Zaixian, manager, financial services division, Robert Walters.

But performing extra client-servicing work on existing investments unfortunately doesn’t generate much new revenue, so banks are generally reluctant to hire additional custodianship staff. “Margins are being squeezed. We need the capital markets to be bullish for longer for hiring to pick up. In particular, we need more IPO’s,” adds Pan.

If you’re an unemployed i-banker desperately seeking the safety of a transactional job, you may need to reconsider. The sector is pretty much a closed shop.

Carss explains: “It’s a very specialised area and difficult for candidates to leverage off non-related skill sets. We have obviously seen many candidates exploring different areas, but transaction banking demand is most definitely on experienced and seasoned candidates.”

Firms are reluctant to hire unemployed professionals from job functions like investment banking and financial markets because they need subject-matter training and might move back to their old jobs when the market picks up, says Kuek.

“There is always a skill shortage. Banks ask me ‘why don’t you send me loads of CVs’, but there’s a limited supply of people with the relevant skill sets and the good ones are more risk adverse about changing jobs in this volatile climate than before,” she adds.