Survival of the fittest in banking
Investment banks are not hiring as they are overstaffed and overpaid, according to John Mullally, Manager, Financial Services, Robert Walters Hong Kong.
The continued instability in Europe and the US ha s negatively affected hiring budgets and attitudes in the financial services and commercial sectors in Hong Kong and the region, according to Robert Walters research earlier in the year.
In the first half of the year the positions the financial sector were seeking to fill mainly comprised corporate banking roles in trade finance and supply chain in addition to private bankers, insurance, assurance and sales professionals in the consumer banking and insurance sectors. Compliance and governance professionals were also in demand due to added guidelines implemented by regulators. Hiring is predicted to remain cautious for the rest of the year with demand driven by the continuing needs of corporates in Hong Kong, China and the broader Asian area.
Mullally foresees an about-turn to traditional banking functions with those engaged in personal and corporate banking activity to continue to flourish—aided in part by the increased presence in the region of China’s spending power and style. He shared that investment banks are not currently hiring as they are in fact, “overstaffed and overpaid.” Within the next five years, one in three in the IBs, he predicted, will have had to move on to other banking function areas, such as retraining as relationship managers to corporates.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
