Private bankers in Singapore may be hotly sought after but they still have to jump through hoops to get hired. Their chief concern has typically been whether a sufficient number of clients will be bothered moving their investments to the new firm.
Now recruitment processes in the sector are being slowed down for an additional reason, say headhunters: growing concerns about client compliance.
Singapore has committed to automatically start sharing information with foreign tax authorities from 2018 under an agreement signed by more than 51 countries last year that seeks to put an end to tax evasion, reports Reuters. And Monetary Authority of Singapore officials have been recently asking private banks if they have heard any client concerns about the exchange of information mechanism, sources told Reuters.
“In this new environment, banks are asking more and more questions about where a potential new employee’s clients originally sourced their wealth from, for example,” says a Singapore-based recruiter. “Just because client X has been with you for ages at one bank – and passed compliance tests there years and years ago – doesn’t mean they’ll be accepted by a new bank, which may take a tougher approach. It’s becoming harder to move relationship managers.”
Meanwhile:
Chong Hing Bank is recruiting staff for a planned expansion in China that will focus on Guangdong province. (Bloomberg)
More Chinese companies to look to onshore bond markets for funding after yuan’s fall. (Finance Asia)
China Citic Bank posts slower 2.5% profit rise on lending push. (South China Morning Post)
Shared office space comes to China. (Wall Street Journal)
Singapore places 38 firms on watchlist for not considering Singaporeans fairly for jobs. (Straits Times)
ASEAN integration to generate more Filipino banking jobs. (Star Sun)
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