Singapore’s banking bigwigs gets highest wage hike in Asia Pacific: survey

The demand for top executives is at its peak.

Senior financial services personnel in Singapore will get the fattest paychecks this year, a survey by Towers Watson revealed today.

Executive directors will see a salary increase of 4.3% in 2014, compared to 2.5% in 2013. Senior management are also expected to see a considerable improvement in salary increase, jumping from 3% growth last year to 4% for 2014.

According to Sean Darilay, Leader of Towers Watson's Global Data Services practice in Southeast Asia, "These results are a reflection of Singapore's long-standing status as a hub for financial services in Asia Pacific. The growing number of financial institutions based in Singapore has led to an intensifying competition for top executives thus resulting in the market adjustment of salaries.”

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“Beyond pay strategies, organisations are trying to find innovative means of attracting and retaining key talent within the total rewards portfolio, such as new ways of designing and delivering their benefits,” Darilay added.

For the rest of Asia Pacific at the general industry level, salaries in China and Cambodia are forecast to rise 8% before inflation is taken into account – after inflation is built in, average increases are forecast at 5.2% and 4.1% respectively.

Elsewhere in the region, salaries in Vietnam are set to rise 11.5% and Indonesia 9.6%, while salaries in Hong Kong and Singapore are forecast to go up 4.5% and 4.3% respectively, Pakistan (13%) and India (10%) are expected to see the biggest increases, while New Zealand (3%) and Japan (2.3%) will see the lowest.

“In most cases, we’ve revised our salary forecasts modestly lower from our forecasts back in October 2013 mostly because inflation is expected to be lower than previously thought,” said Sambhav Rakyan, Global Data Services practice leader, Asia Pacific, at Towers Watson.

The Towers Watson 2013 -14 Asia-Pacific Salary Budget Planning Report drew on approximately 2,000 sets of responses covering 18 countries in the Asia Pacific region.

The survey included about 400 different companies, some of which responded for multiple countries where they have a presence.

The survey was set against a regional backdrop of annual inflation little changed from 2013 at 4.1%, stronger economic growth, and a decline in the overall unemployment rate.