Why your next banking boss may be a Filipino or Indian

Research shows more roles being shipped to India and Philippines and banking jobs in AsiaPac down 14%.

Financial sector job opportunities in Asia-Pacific dropped 14% year-on-year with average job postings in the region decreasing from 2,871 in Q2 2011 to 2,464 in Q2 2012, according to the latest quarterly Jobs Barometer from eFinancialCareers, the leading global career site network for professionals working in the investment banking, asset management and securities industries.

There are signs of stability returning to the market, with a 2% quarter-on-quarter increase from Q1-2012 to Q2-2012. Hong Kong’s job opportunities remained essentially flat with a minor 2% quarter-on-quarter decrease, while Singapore and Australia experienced modest improvement of 3% and 4% respectively.

Amidst the conservative hiring environment across APAC, there are still some areas of growth: job postings for information-services positions in the region increased by 76% year-on-year in Q2, driven by a growing emphasis on risk management.

Asia Pacific Top Performing Sectors in Q2

Asset management, information services and operations were the top performing sectors in the regions, with quarter-on-quarter growth of 28%, 26% and 15% respectively.

Asset management - Compared to banks, asset management firms have been proportionally less affected by recent retrenchments in Asia Pacific. In Hong Kong, the sector has benefited from the expansion of yuan funds, with experienced, China-focused portfolio managers in demand. Recruitment in investment banking is generally stagnant, with some buy-side firms opportunistically taking on bankers keen for a career change into a potentially more stable, less hierarchical environment.

Information services - During the second quarter, banks put an increased emphasis on risk management and compliance thanks to fluctuating markets and an ever-changing regulatory environment. This had a positive effect on recruitment at information-services providers because financial institutions needed timely data to support their risk-management systems.

Operations - eFinancialCareers witnessed a partial recovery in operations recruitment in the last three months, despite continued off-shoring of roles out of Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia into lower-cost countries such as India and the Philippines. Much of this increase was seasonal with people moving after receiving their bonuses while back-office hiring was mainly driven by a need to replace essential employees rather than by new growth.