Relationship manager (RM) jobs in Asian corporate banking are in demand right now as banks look to eke out more revenue from corporate clients.
But what’s the best route to getting your first RM job in Singapore or Hong Kong?
The answer is not as straightforward as in investment banking, where internships typically lead to analyst traineeships. While banks in Asia often source new RMs from graduate programmes, they also hire juniors from other banking jobs or even other industries.
Graduate training programmes
Some banks in Singapore and Hong Kong offer graduate training tailored to people wanting to become RMs.
OCBC, for example, runs an 18 to 24-month ‘relationship associate career framework’. After an initial spell in customer services, graduates move to a specific unit in OCBC’s corporate bank where they help manage clients and learn about credit, cash management, trade, treasury and other financial products. They also rotate across divisions such as product development and operations, says Jacinta Low, head of HR planning at OCBC.
Similarly, DBS’s graduate associate programme for SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) banking offers front-to-back office job rotation, classroom training in core financial skills, and on-the-job training in relationship management.
If you don’t get on an RM-specific course, a more generalist graduate programme could also ultimately lead to an RM job, says former ANZ corporate banker Jerald Chen, now a recruiter at Kerry Consulting in Singapore. For example, some of the people who completed the one-year graduate rotation at Standard Chartered then went on to become assistant RMs.
A stint as a junior
When your training ends you may not immediately have your own clients or even assume the job title ‘relationship manager’ – most banks will require you to do an intermediate stint as a junior/associate/assistant RM.
“After completing our training, you become a junior RM, guided by a team leader. Then in order to progress, you’re expected to perform on the job, and develop a strong foundation in sales, product knowledge and credit analysis,” says Grace Yip, executive director, group human resources, at DBS.
Low from OCBC adds: “Relationship associates at OCBC are assessed on their performance before they’re appointed as junior RMs and given a small portfolio. Only then can then progress to becoming full-fledged RMs, managing their own clients.”
Some people can spend up to three years in RM purgatory, says Chen from Kerry. “Building relationships – externally with clients and internally with product partners – takes time. RMs often pitch to clients’ most senior executives, so they need to come across as credible. When dealing with large corporates there’s little margin for error – RMs must be adept at matching their bank’s products to their clients’ needs, while striking a balance between risk appetite and credit policy.”
Other routes into relationship manager jobs in Singapore and Hong Kong
If you’re a young finance professional in Asia and you haven’t done any of the above, it may still be possible to get a corporate banking RM job. Gary Lai, Southeast Asia managing director at recruiters Charterhouse Partnership, says most of the RMs he interviews started out in a different part of banking.
Several junior credit risk professionals with “sales personalities”, for example, have transitioned into RM roles, says Lai. Credit assessment is a vital part of most RM jobs.
Staying at your current bank is the easiest way to make such a move. “Employees up to the rank of assistant vice president who’ve worked for two years in their current role are eligible to apply for positions within the bank,” says Yip from DBS. “We’ve had a case of a credit risk manager who became an RM and was then successfully promoted to a senior management role.”
Chen from Kerry says he’s also seen RMs move from corporate finance, commercial banking, retail banking, pricing analysis, sector research and even compliance.
And because of skill shortages in corporate banking, people from outside the finance sector are sometimes considered. “If the corporate banking RM vacancy covers the telco industry, for example, the candidate may come from a telco sales background,” explains Lai.
Chen adds: “But the journey will be longer for candidates from outside banking, so grads should aim for a banking position as early as possible in their career. Moving from industry is still more exception than norm.”
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