OCBC to hire more than 3,000 people this year

OCBC said on Monday that it plans to hire more than 3,000 people in Singapore this year, amid the economic and employment uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

About seven in ten of these jobs are full-time roles across the banking group's entities, such as OCBC Bank, OCBC Securities, its private-banking subsidiary Bank of Singapore as well as its insurance arm Great Eastern.

These 2,100 new positions represent about 19 per cent of the group's current workforce of some 11,000 employees in Singapore.

The full-time openings are in areas such as wealth management, corporate banking, risk management, data analytics, operations and technology.

OCBC is also on the lookout for technology-related personnel to facilitate its roll-out of digital solutions for customers and employees, which have seen a significant increase in uptake driven by the pandemic.

The remaining 900 positions will be a mix of traineeships and internships.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

OCBC will offer more than 500 traineeships to university and polytechnic graduates, in areas such as corporate banking, data and technology, under the nationwide SGUnited Traineeships Programme introduced in March.

Meanwhile, 400 internships will be offered to university and polytechnic students to provide them with insights into the banking and insurance industry.

On top of these openings, OCBC will continue to offer traineeships through the Technology in Finance Immersion Programme (TIFP) to help jobseekers looking for a career switch in new tech areas within the financial services sector. These areas include cloud computing, cybersecurity and full stack development.

In a press statement, OCBC's chief executive officer Samuel Tsien said: "We are committed to helping Singaporeans ride out this extremely difficult period. By creating and protecting jobs, we contribute towards boosting disposable incomes and consumer confidence. Both are much needed to reignite the economy."

DBS said in May that it would hire more than 2,000 in Singapore this year. More than 1,000 are new roles for fresh graduate trainees, as well as more specialised roles for seasoned professionals.

Singapore's largest bank said over a third - or more than 360 - of the new permanent roles being created this year are for seasoned professionals in growth technology areas. More than 300 of these new jobs are in the areas of UX/UI, data science, fraud detection, compliance, as well as consumer and institutional banking technology.

DBS had said it is also looking to train and hire more than 60 people in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, full stack development and data analytics. This will be done by tapping on specialised talent development programmes such as TFIP and the TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA) Mid-Career Advance. Both programmes are meant to help seasoned professionals embark on a technology career in financial services.

DBS has some 12,000 staff in Singapore.

The Singapore banks are understood to be retaining the funding offered under the Jobs Support Scheme, but have indicated that they are committed to using the government wage support to create new jobs and boost training.

The Singapore banking trio have also pledged no retrenchments as a result of the novel coronavirus outbreak.