Banks in Singapore expand wealth, tech jobs even as Wall Street layoffs gather steam

GLOBAL investment banks may have been laying off dealmakers and cutting bankers’ pay, but banks in Singapore are looking at a rosier situation as more private monies flow their way and they seek to enhance digital capabilities.

Recruiters and bank representatives The Business Times (BT) spoke to said lenders here are hiring across their wealth businesses, corporate and commercial banking divisions, as well as for a gamut of tech-related roles.

Hiring may have slowed for 2022, as is typical for most year-ends, but recruiters said they have received mandates for the next year that include salary packages between 20 and 40 per cent above the norm, as employers jostle for talent.

Capturing Asian wealth and growing corporate needs

While investment banking and functions involving institutional investors have also taken a hit among banks here, demand for talent in private banking and wealth management has grown, said Ken Ong, director and head of financial services at recruitment firm Morgan McKinley.

“Banks in Singapore have also increased their appetite to take on bankers from overseas markets, like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China, with the influx of wealth and family offices into Singapore. The longevity of relationships (with these clients) has taken on quite some importance,” he said.

Singapore has been growing in popularity as a spot for wealthy individuals from North Asia to park their wealth. About 44 per cent, or 63 out of 143 new family offices here, had links to Greater China, as at April this year, according to data analytics platform Handshakes.

The Republic attracted S$448 billion in new money inflows last year, 15.8 per cent more than the previous year, according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

While Ong used to receive an equal number of requests for both private banking and investment banking hires, he now puts the ratio at 65:35 in favour of private banking and wealth-related hires.

OCBC, for one, is looking to double its current stable of relationship managers for wealthy Chinese clients to 500 by 2023, to support growing trade and investment flows between Asean and Greater China and to capture rising Asian wealth.

Chief executive officer Helen Wong had said during the bank’s quarterly earnings briefing early this month that it is looking to boost frontline staff to seize the growing opportunity in wealth, in addition to enhancing customer coverage in its wholesale business.

The bank is also looking to grow the number of corporate and commercial bankers by 30 per cent to about 400 by 2024.

HSBC added 1,200 wealth roles across Asia in 2021, and is committed to adding 5,000 wealth managers in the region by 2025.

The bank has also dedicated a programme to reskilling current employees to pursue career changes that centre on wealth. The Accelerated Wealth Programme centres on transferable skills rather than experience and qualifications, said a representative from the bank.

“In addition to hiring externally, we are also committed to developing and reskilling our people to support our wealth growth strategy in the region,” he said.

Citi Singapore is looking to hire 350 more staff in its commercial bank across the Asia-Pacific, with about a tenth of them based in Singapore. This forms part of its plans to expand capabilities serving mid-sized companies whose annual revenues start from S$10 million and which have cross-border needs, the bank’s spokesperson said.

He added that the lender is on track to meeting its commitment to hire 1,500 more staff for its growing wealth business by 2025.

Boosting tech bench a long-term vision

Digitalisation, digital banks, new technologies, as well as environmental, social and governance concerns will have significant influence on the hiring market for banking and financial services in 2023, according to a Robert Walters survey published last Friday (Nov 25).

The survey noted that 85 per cent of businesses in the sector are offering pay raises, while 55 per cent of professionals expect a pay raise in 2023.

The banks BT spoke to are looking to fill a wide range of tech-related roles, from application development and artificial intelligence, to cybersecurity.

Matthew Ng, regional head of financial services at Charterhouse SG, said banks face strong competition for tech talent from other financial technology companies, even as Big Tech has started downsizing.

Banks are offering pay bumps of up to 40 per cent to scoop up tech workers who have recently been laid off, said Ng, who specialises in recruiting for tech and operations roles.

HSBC’s spokesperson said the bank has extended a two-year digital innovation programme to Singapore for the first time to “grow technology talents”. Programme participants work with the bank’s global teams on projects involving cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, Big Data and artificial intelligence.

OCBC is hiring for 1,500 tech-related roles over the next three years, while a DBS spokesperson said digital transformation remains a “strategic imperative” for the bank, and it will continue to pace its tech investments through the economic cycle.

Meanwhile, UOB is looking for tech talents in programme management, business and system analysis as well as cybersecurity. Last month, the bank launched an academy for fresh graduates and budding professionals to apply for internships in tech and operations-related roles. Hiring volume across the bank is up 35 per cent this year compared to 2019, said its head of human resources Dean Tong.