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BY FELDA CHAY
THE next three to five years will be a great time for regional banks, and those seeking jobs in the financial industry should look to join these outfits, OCBC's head of global treasury and executive vice-president Lam Kun Kin said yesterday.
Speaking at a dialogue session organised by The Financial Training Institute@SMU (Singapore Management University) on pathways to banking and finance careers, Mr Lam said that regional banks are stable and have strong balance sheets and tight regulatory controls that put them in an 'advantageous position right now to grow their business'. This, in turn, will create demand for talent.
DBS chief executive Piyush Gupta (pictured above) said that banks and financial institutions are likely to hire in areas such as risk management and compliance. While risk management was an area in which institutions were trying to outsource, this will be curtailed given the belief that lax risk management was a major cause of the economic turmoil, he said.
The growing focus on compliance is also likely to stay, so those interested in joining the industry can look to these areas, he added.
Other tips on getting banking and finance jobs were provided by a panel of speakers that also included Lion Global Investors chief executive Daniel Chan and ANZ Singapore's chief executive Bill Foo.
Job seekers were urged to be well-rounded and possess a healthy dose of scepticism.
'We want to hire people for careers, not for jobs,' said Mr Gupta.
Besides giving advice on getting jobs in the industry, speakers also said that they are bullish on hiring next year. In particular, the wealth management industry has started to grow again, Mr Gupta said.
But Lion Global's Mr Chan said that this segment is likely to remain cautious on hiring, because the asset management industry was one of the worst hit during the crisis.
This article was first published in The Business Times.
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