Hong Kong Career Blog

The job market in the West may be lean, but we are still getting more requests to search for candidates in the APAC region.  Each week, we will continue to feature some of our latest, most attractive job opportunities.  Below are some of the newest positions for which our clients are recruiting in Hong Kong:

1. Finance Manager/Controller

Our client specialises in the provision of corporate advisory services and is one of the region’s largest client servicing organisations. As a result of significant growth in the region, the Hong Kong-based operation is now seeking a Financial Controller to lead their team. This role reports directly to the Managing Director.

A background in professional services is advantageous and you must possess exceptional client relationship management skills. Experience in the areas of strategic planning, hands-on financial accounting, budgets and forecasts, tax planning, would be highly desirable. For a driven self starter who can demonstrate a track record of analytical and leadership skills, this is an organisation which can offer exceptional long term career opportunities.

To qualify individuals must possess,

• An accounting qualification
• Strong business partnering skills
• A minimum of 10 years of experience in a professional services environment
• Superb people skills
• Commercially oriented with strong leadership abilities
• Excellent communication skills in English and Chinese
• Hyperion skills an advantage

2. Associate Product Controller / Global Investment Bank

Our client is a US-based Investment Bank with a strong global presence. As part of continued growth due to the groups success, a newly created opportunity has arisen for a Product Controller to join its Equity Derivatives team

Reporting to the Manager of the Product Control function, you will be responsible for a number of challenging tasks related to accuracy and integrity of the books and records, preparation of daily and monthly P&L reporting, ad hoc valuations, P&L reconciliation and provide support to Front Office for all trading accounting queries. You will also be responsible for making sure price testing and off market rate checking is done according to group standards. This is an excellent opportunity for a Product Controller to continue their career in a challenging and rewarding environment in one of the most prestigious investment banks in the world.

To qualify, individuals must possess:

• University degree, preferably in Accounting, Finance or Numerate Studies
• Knowledge in derivatives and structured products is a must.
• 3 to 5 years of Product Control experience, with Equity Derivatives exposure an advantage
• Investment banking experience a must
• Strong analytical, interpersonal and time management skills
• Excellent fluency in English

To find out more about these jobs and to search for other openings, please visit our job search page at Ambition Hong Kong.

In a recent survey of nearly 1,900 finance professionals, Hong Kong placed third in ranking the world’s top finance hubs, finishing behind New York and London.

According to Channel News Asia:

“There remains no significant difference between London and New York (in the ratings). Respondents continue to believe that these centres work together for mutual benefit,” according to the twice-annual report produced by London-based think tank Z/Yen Group. “Hong Kong has joined London and New York as a genuinely global financial centre. Singapore may well join this trio soon.”

Singapore was placed fourth in the top 10 followed by Tokyo, Shanghai, Chicago, Zurich, Geneva and Sydney.

“The top four centres control a large proportion of financial transactions (over 70 percent of equity trading)…(and) are likely to remain powerful financial centres for the foreseeable future,” the report said.

Asia “continues to exhibit enhanced competitiveness” with Shanghai breaking into the top 10 and Seoul cracking the top 25, the report said.”

This bodes well for Hong Kong’s continued appeal as a location for foreign companies to not only do business, but to possibly relocate their full operation, as HSBC recently threatened to do.  However, a lot of companies are  keenly aware of the competition from Shanghai, which the Chinese Government surely would prefer as China’s dominant commerce center.

To view some of the latest jobs in the world’s number three finance center, please visit us at Ambition Hong Kong.

While the employment markets are tough in the U.S. and U.K., we are still getting more and more requests to search for candidates in the APAC region.  Each week, we will continue to feature some of our latest, most attractive job opportunities.   Below are some of the newest positions for which our clients are recruiting in Hong Kong:

1. Prime Brokerage Middle Office

Our client is a leading Asian Banking group with a growing Cash and Derivative business. Due to current business expansion, a new opportunity now exists for an experience Middle Office executive to join their well-established team.

You will be responsible in providing support to the Equity and FX trade by performing day to day trade booking, pre-settlement matching, reconciliation and follow up on any fail trades. Liaising frequently with Client Service representative and Front Office to resolve trade breaks. In addition, will have to help with the on-boarding of new clients and help to resolve their queries for any trade-related issues.

To qualify, the individuals must possess:

• A university degree with a major in Finance, Economics, Mathematics or any other relevant disciplines
• Minimum of 6 years of experience gained within another Middle Office or Trade support function
• Strong knowledge in Cash or Synthetic Equity products and processes
• Proven ability to communicate effectively
• A energetic, proactive and analytical mindset
• Fluency in both English and Cantonese

2. Manager/Senior Manager, Financial Statuatory Body

Our client is a well known financial services statutory establishment currently looking for a dynamic and committed individual to support their ongoing initiatives and to assist the organisation in facilitating the growth of the banking industry in Hong Kong.

In this role, you will work closely with the banking industry and have multiple opportunities to interact with banking professionals to resolve issues that can impact the industry. The main responsibility of this position will be to act as the establishments representative and will have to issue regular circulars, prepare and drive industry meetings as well as to provide executive support to committees and working groups. In addition, you will prepare reports representing the banking industry to various regulators in refining new regulations and policies.

To qualify, the individuals must possess:

• A university degree with 10 to 12 years of working experience gained from a well-established bank
• Prior HKMA/SFC rules and regulations exposure would be preferred
• Proven project management skills
• An independent and self motivated personality
• Strong problem solving abilities and a passion to be able to liaise with multiple counterparts
• Excellent command in both written and spoken English
• Ability to read and write in Chinese

To find out more about these jobs and to search for other openings, please visit our job search page at Ambition Hong Kong.

HSBC executives recently threatened to relocate their headquarters from London to parts unknown (read: back to Hong Kong, maybe Singapore) if some reforms currently under consideration by the British government are passed

From thiismoney.com:

“Stuart Gulliver, head of investment banking at HSBC, said it was ‘clearly possible’ the government’s Independent Commission on Banking will recommend a break-up, which would have implications for itself, Barclays and Standard Chartered.

‘That has significant implications for where we may choose to headquarter our institution and that would probably also be the case for the other two institutions,’ Gulliver said at a conference.

‘Our absolute wish is to stay here in the UK, but we won’t know until we see how the Commission responds.’

Chancellor George Osborne created the ICB as part of a major regulatory overhaul that will focus on cutting the risk of corporate failure and mitigating moral hazard in the banking sector.

HSBC Chief Executive Michael Geoghegan moved to Hong Kong earlier this year to be in the bank’s key region.

The CEO of Asia-focused rival Standard Chartered warned last month that the rationale for keeping its headquarters in London was weakening as UK banks face being at a disadvantage to rivals on taxes, pay and regulation.”

We don’t want to get too excited about this, as you can’t just pick up and move the bank’s HQ without spending a lot of the money they are complaining about losing, but the situation bears watching as more bank related jobs may arise in Hong Kong as institutions begin a slow migration (if not a wholesale move) of personnel into Asia.

To view the latest jobs for banking and finance professionals seeking work in Hong Kong, please visit us at Ambition Hong Kong.

According to recruiters, a number of European banks (including Barclays Plc, Credit Suisse Group AG and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc)  may pull back on hiring as the year comes to an end.   Bloomberg  is reporting that staff may even be shed due to a drop in revenue from fixed income trading:

“’Now that trading revenues are dropping there’s a hiring freeze on,’ said John Purcell, managing director at executive search firm Purcell & Co. in London. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised to see people shedding traders again.’

…

Barclays Capital added about 3,600 people in the 12 months to June 30, while Credit Suisse hired 1,800 and RBS’s securities unit increased headcount by approximately 1,100. In March, UBS AG Chief Executive Officer Oswald Gruebel said the bank hired about 350 fixed-income traders over the preceding 12 months.

Credit Suisse and Barclays Capital said on Aug. 11 they plan job cuts. Credit Suisse said it will eliminate 75 posts in the U.K. Barclays Capital is cutting 300 administrative jobs, a person with knowledge of the matter said at the time. Barclays plans to recruit in its growth areas, a spokesman said.

…

‘The war for talent has meant that the cost of hiring has gone up significantly,”’UBS Chief Financial Officer John Cryan said in an interview on July 27. ‘I wouldn’t expect that we’d be taking on enormous numbers.’

The cost of employing bankers jumped after the U.K. last year levied a 50 percent one-time tax on discretionary bonuses. The securities units of Barclays and Citigroup Inc. also boosted salaries after Group of 20 leaders called on banks to stop guaranteeing bonuses for longer than one year.

‘A lot of the hires that companies were trying to make did not get approved by management especially those with guaranteed bonuses,’ said Jason Kennedy, chief executive officer of Kennedy Group, a London-based executive search firm. ‘They are saying: sorry there is a freeze of guarantee-type hires. It’s on base-pay only.’”

Read the full story at Bloomberg.

This is not exactly great news, but does pose an opportunity for banking and financial services in Asia, as a number of the firms in the article have stated that they will continue to hire outside Western Europe.  Barclays Capital for one is predicted to add as much as 10 percent more staff this year, mainly in Asia.

To take advantage of the rebounding recruitment market in Asia and to view some of the open positions in key fields, please visit Ambition Hong Kong

Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp (HSBC) and Hang Seng Bank have announced plans to ramp up recruitment in order to add to their headcounts.  They also have expressed a commitment to more carefully assess payrolls in a newly competitive job market.

The Standard reports:

“Hongkong Bank will hire at least 300 people in the mainland this year – including equities specialists – while Hang Seng will add up to 600 staff in Hong Kong and China.

‘We have many vacancies,’ said Hang Seng vice chairman and chief executive Margaret Leung Ko May-yee. ‘If we’re to meet our hiring forecasts, we’ll hire 400 people locally and 200 in the mainland.’”

However, things aren’t as simple as all that, as Chief executive Peter Tung-shun commented that finding talent has become “challenging”:

“‘As wealth moves from West to East in the coming years, many people will scramble for employees. With high turnover, we will pay more attention to salary surveys,’ Wong said.”

Well, we hope they will consider our most recent surveys, which we think will also be quite helpful to job seekers looking to gauge their value in current market.  You can read them all Ambition Hong Kong.

With brightening economic prospects and improving employment news in Hong Kong, we have been receiving a growing number of requests to search for candidates recently.  Each week, we will continue to feature some of our latest, most attractive job opportunities.   Below are some of the newest positions for which our clients are recruiting:

1. Manager/Senior Manager, Financial Statuatory Body

Our client is a well known financial services statutory establishment currently looking for a dynamic and committed individual to support their ongoing initiatives and to assist the organisation in facilitating the growth of the banking industry in Hong Kong.

In this role, you will work closely with the banking industry and have multiple opportunities to interact with banking professionals to resolve issues that can impact the industry. The main responsibility of this position will be to act as the establishments representative and will have to issue regular circulars, prepare and drive industry meetings as well as to provide executive support to committees and working groups. In addition, you will prepare reports representing the banking industry to various regulators in refining new regulations and policies.

To qualify, the individuals must possess:

• A university degree with 10 to 12 years of working experience gained from a well-established bank
• Prior HKMA/SFC rules and regulations exposure would be preferred
• Proven project management skills
• An independent and self motivated personality
• Strong problem solving abilities and a passion to be able to liaise with multiple counterparts
• Excellent command in both written and spoken English
• Ability to read and write in Chinese

2. Client Administration Manager, Private Bank

Our client is a global banking group with established businesses within the Asia Pacific region. An exciting new opportunity has recently arisen within their Private Wealth management business.

The core responsibility of this role is to oversee the day to day business functions within their Private Wealth business and identify gaps within their business process by performing analysis into their local and regional support team. You will perform transactional review to ensure its compliance to the groups policies and procedures. In addition, you will be involved in talent recruitment into the business support functions.

To qualify, the individuals must possess:

• Minimum 6 years of working experience gained within an international finance institution, preferably with 3 years within a Private Bank
• Strong Project or Business Management exposure
• Effective communication and interpersonal skills to foster strong working relationship with the business
• Excellent analytical and problem solving mindset
• Proficiency in English, Cantonese and/or Mandarin

To find out more about these jobs and to search for other openings, please visit our job search page at Ambition Hong Kong.

Reuters has reported that hiring in Asia is really heating up as Investment banks are targeting top talent by offering up big pay packages that rival pre-crisis levels. For example, several prominent bankers have changed firms, one reason for which is the chance to obtain guaranteed compensation packages that some say are as high as $10 million a year.

However, Reuters points out that there may some backlash:

‘‘’I am against guaranteed bonuses,’’ U.S. ‘pay czar’ Kenneth Feinberg told Reuters on Wednesday, when asked about the latest wave of these on offer. ‘We have said guaranteed bonuses are a bad idea so we’ll see what those banks do.’’

Shareholders of certain banks such as HSBC have fought against executive pay, and regulators have taken steps to bring compensation more in line with long-term performance. But so far, guaranteed pay packages have largely stayed out of the radar of the public. The banking industry says that guarantees are necessary to attract and retain top talent, and may even reduce risk-taking. Proponents say in many cases they are used sparingly and only for top executives.

A flurry of investment-bank hiring has occurred at top levels lately, with a large chunk occuring in Asia, where competition for talent is growing as upstart banks expand in the region. According to bankers and headhunters involved, the movement of dealmakers here involves favourable guarantees, some worth several million dollars for two years and others hitting eight-digit numbers.
…
In most cases, a responsible banking professional on a guarantee would seek to perform well, create value for the bank, and help the bottomline. The worry about guarantees is that a banker is paid a lot but not incentivised to outperform. In a worst case scenario, the person could feel that underperformance is not a worry because it won’t impact pay, which could result in a riskier decision that costs the bank.

Alan Johnson, a Wall Street compensation consultant, said the industry has an opposite view. ‘‘The view of the industry is that if you take a guarantee you are going to take less risk and not work as hard,’’ Johnson said.
…
Investment banking compensation is formulated the same across the industry. Base pay is set, usually with a limit of $250,000 per year for the top executives. It’s the bonus that matters, with top managing directors routinely earning $1 million per year in bonus pay. At the high end, some top rainmakers are getting up to $15 million for two years in guaranteed pay packages, accounting for a roughly 20-50 percent jump over the previous year.
…
What has stoked the pay and talent battle in part is that more banks are now building out investment banking capabilities. Barclays plc and Japan’s top brokerage, Nomura Holdings, are among those entering the competitive world of investment banking to take on the Wall Street giants. Headhunters and industry sources say two-year guarantees are rare and only a few top dealmakers get them. Rose Marie Orens, senior partner at New York-based Compensation Advisory Partners, said guaranteed bonuses are more likely to come into play when someone is being hired late in the year and does not have an opportunity to get a bonus — or if they are leaving money on the table from an old job.”

Despite the potential public outcry over bank bonuses, it’s clear that hiring across all finance related industries is bouncing back and the need for top notch talent is rising.

To take advantage of the rebounding recruitment market and to view some of the open positions in key fields, please visit Ambition Hong Kong

Business Week has reported that Daiwa Securities is joining the ranks of financial services firm that are planning to boost their recruitment efforts in order to add headcount in Asia as we move into the second half of 2010.  In a bid to raise its Asia revenue to 160 billion Yen, the Japanese brokerage has already added more than 100 bankers and plans to hire another 70 to 80 staff in Hong Kong alone.

Bloomberg reported:

“Revenue from Asia will rise to 30 percent of the group’s total in fiscal 2011 from 10 percent now, Chief Executive Officer Shigeharu Suzuki said in a statement today. Capital markets revenue from its Asia offices is expected to reach 53 billion yen, he said.  Suzuki is expanding investment banking and broking globally to fill the gap left after dissolving a 10-year-old joint venture with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. in December. The revenue target includes KBC Groep NV’s convertible bond and Asia equity derivatives units, which Daiwa earlier this month agreed to acquire for about $1 billion, he said today. The brokerage, which reported revenue of 537.9 billion yen last fiscal year, reiterated plans to hire 300 more staff in the Asia-Pacific region by March 2012 for its derivatives and equities business.

Daiwa’s hiring costs this fiscal year will be about 10 billion yen and an additional 20 billion yen may be required later, Suzuki said, without giving a timeframe. He also repeated plans to hire another 100 people in the region for underwriting and mergers and acquisitions in next two years.  The company has hired more than 100 bankers, mainly for its equity and derivative units, since October, bringing total headcount in Asia to 850, it said in today’s statement…It expects to add 70 to 80 people to its Hong Kong office as part of the KBC acquisition, Suzuki said.

Daiwa also intends to raise more than 70 billion yen in capital for expansion in the region, the Tokyo-based company said in a presentation to analysts on May 17. Revenue from Asia, excluding Japan, was 14 billion yen in the fiscal year ended March 31, according to the presentation.”

This is yet another sign that competition for banking and back of office professionals will continue to be intense as companies seek to hire from a depleted talent pool as many expats left Hong Kong and other Asian due to a tough employment market in 2009. This presents an excellent opportunity not only for bankers seeking jobs, but also for other professionals, as we expect there to be a continued flow through effect, leading to an increase in the number of available back of house jobs, including accounting, ops, marketing and corporate comms.

To view some of the open positions in these fields, please visit Ambition Hong Kong

Business Week reported that Morgan Stanley is yet another financial services firm that is planning to add headcount in Asia in the near future.

In the next year alone, the company expects to add around 100 bankers to its regional staff.  Morgan tapped Nick Chan, formerly of the Goldman Sachs Group Inc.,  to lead the company’s recruitment and staffing effort in Asia.

Charles Mak, head of private wealth management for Morgan in Asia, commented:

“This will be our most aggressive expansion in the private wealth space in Asia…This region has the best economic growth, the highest levels of wealth creation, and many players are coming to this part of the world, or are expanding.”

Many observers believe that growth in Asian wealth will remain ahead of the global average and, as a result, the firms that best position themselves to serve the needs of their Asian clients will reap huge rewards.  Bloomberg reported:

“Wealth in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, is expected to rise at almost double the global rate, according to an annual study by the Boston Consulting Group.

The region will increase its share of global wealth from 15% last year to almost 20% in 2014, with China and India the engines of growth, according to the report released on June 10. Together, the two countries will make up 75%, or almost $9 trillion, of the increase in assets managed in the region.”

Morgan certainly wants to take the lead, as they serve an ultra- high net worth segment in Asia, generally working with clients who have in excess of $10 million.

However, there are challenges to the company’s recruitment efforts.  For one thing, the competition for the kinds of professionals they are seeking is intense and they are up against the likes of BSI, Standard Chartered and other similar outfits.  Further, the firm’s standards (not to mention those of its clients) are high, making finding and hiring the right people no simple task.  We and other observers have noticed the increased hiring targets set by a number of banks and financial services firms, and it can be argued that the talent pool is simply not deep enough in certain industries.

However, we also expect that that there will continue to be flow through effects, resulting in the creation of new back of house jobs, including accounting, ops, marketing and corporate comms.

To view some of the open positions in these fields, please visit Ambition Hong Kong and Ambition Singapore