Are you looking for junior banking job in Singapore for which big pay rises are still on the cards? You’re advised to work in corporate banking.
Corporate banking juniors in Singapore received handsome salary increases over the past year according to the latest survey from recruitment firm Robert Walters.
The table below shows the Singapore-based analyst-level jobs which experienced the greatest percentage salary rises in the 12 months to January 2016. Of the 13 job functions in the table, the top six are in corporate banking, including structured trade commodity finance, where pay has jumped an impressive 25%.
The pay increases are surprising in a market where the economy is slowing and salaries are generally stagnating as European banks cut jobs and unemployed candidates enter the market.
The figures in the table are derived from 2016 and 2015 maximum annual base salaries for analyst-level Singapore finance professionals (people with about one to three years’ experience) across all permanent and contract job functions.
What accounts for the dominance of corporate banking roles in the analyst pay-rise table? Recruiters who specialise in the sector say vacancy rates are steady rather than spectacular. While hiring at global banks has been hit by falling trade flows in Asia, Singaporean firms have been expanding in corporate banking. The main factor pushing up pay, however, is a continued talent shortage – as we reported last month, not enough young people in Asia are taking jobs in corporate banking.
Pay increases in investment banking were less spectacular. Analyst in investment banking and trading roles in Singapore amassed moderate pay rises of 10% or less, and make up the bottom half of our table. But even rises on this scale are somewhat surprising given turgid markets last year. Southeast Asia mergers and acquisitions (M&A) fell 3% year-on-year in 2015, while equity capital markets (ECM) and debt capital markets (DCM) volumes dropped 33% and 5% respectively, according to Dealogic figures. Junior pay rises may be better explained by the fact that banks in Asia are trying to hire younger staff to replace costly senior bankers.
As offshoring out of Singapore to lower-cost Asian markets continues, there are no back-office jobs in the pay-rise table. And unlike in Hong Kong, where contract jobs dominate those to have enjoyed bumper pay rises, young finance-sector contactors in Singapore have seen no increases in their pay rates compared with last year, according to Robert Walters.
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