US federal authorities have begun a bribery investigation into whether investment bank JP Morgan Chase & Co’s hiring the children of influential Chinese state officials constituted attempts to win new contracts, reports the New York Times.

The Times details several examples where the hiring of sons and daughters of the great and good in the Chinese banking world coincides with the bank winning business in the country.

But the paper also notes that evidence collected by the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s anti-bribery unit “do not definitively link JP Morgan’s hiring practices to its ability to win business, nor do they suggest that the employees were unqualified”.

JP Morgan told the paper it is “fully co-operating with regulators”.

Both the UK’s Guardian newspaper and the Financial Times note today that the practice of hiring what the FT calls “princelings” in the rush to break into the Chinese market is a “habitual” practice among financial institutions.

The FT notes that the investigation “is likely to cause consternation on Wall Street and in the corridors of power in China”, given that the practice is “considered de riguer”.

• See p13 of the new August edition of Recruiter for more on recruitment in China in our Global Spotlight section, also available online via our digital pageturner or in a text-only version.