Credit Suisse, Barclays, Citi among those active of late
By SIOW LI SEN AND CONRAD TAN
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EVIDENCE is growing that banks are stepping up their hiring of senior bankers in Asia, in a sign that sentiment in at least some segments of the financial sector has improved substantially.
Yesterday, Barclays Wealth, the global wealth management division of Barclays plc, said that it had hired a 10-strong team from rival UBS. On Wednesday, Credit Suisse announced nine additions to its Asia-Pacific fixed income sales and trading teams.
Srinivas Siripurapu will join Barclays Wealth as managing director, head of South-east Asia and South Asia, as well as market manager, South Asian community. He will officially join in November, and will bring with him a team of nine.
The 10-strong team includes senior bankers and their assistants and all will be based in Singapore, said Barclays Wealth spokesman Gan Lee Meng.
Barclays Wealth has two offices in Asia - Singapore and Hong Kong. Its Asia-Pacific senior management also operates out of Singapore.
UBS spokeswoman Rachel Lin last night said that a new leadership team headed by Vikram Malhotra is already in place to ensure that there is no disruption to the business or quality of service to clients. Mr Vikram joined UBS in 2006 and was deputy to Mr Srinivas.
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Despite the departures, the number of bankers in the UBS team is still pretty large, 'in double digits', said one UBS banker.
On Wednesday, Credit Suisse said that its latest nine hires are experienced bankers from the competition. Four will be based here, four in Hong Kong and one in London.
Headhunters said that the hiring situation is still mixed. Some banks are hiring across the board while others remain pretty selective.
'We are seeing an increase in job positions across all our sectors,' said Andre Cheong, managing director, Global Search Partners Pte Ltd.
'We have encountered banks who are on a hiring spree whilst others are still retrenching their staff. It is a very mixed bag . . . in the banking sector.'
Citi too has picked up some senior people. Earlier this month, it announced three new appointments.
Ted Huang will be joining as director, commodities marketing and origination in Asia; Joseph Chang, head of Asia equities trading; and Charles Leung, director and head of private bank sales for retail structured products in Asia.
'We continue to hire across the region to support our growth as underlined by recent hires in priority areas for Citi in the Asia-Pacific,' a Citi spokesman said.
Senior managers responsible for hiring decisions say that competition in recent months for experienced staff with specialised skills - particularly in areas such as risk management, legal and compliance work - has remained fierce, despite the financial crisis.
But one senior banker here cautioned that the hiring had to be seen in the context that many jobs were shed in the worst months of the crisis at the end of last year and early this year.
'Quite a number of these firms let go of people over the last 12 months. Now with markets looking better, they're just bulking up again.'
On Aug 6, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) took out an advertisement in The Business Times calling for 'experienced and high calibre' private bankers 'with substantial relationship management experience'.
That was the day after ANZ said that it was buying Royal Bank of Scotland's retail and small-and-medium enterprise banking businesses in Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as some wholesale banking operations in the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.
In March and April, Credit Suisse ran a series of similar advertisements in newspapers across Asia calling for experienced private bankers.
Has the demand by some governments that banker salaries be restrained been felt here?
'Bankers have short memories and indeed we are seeing sign-on bonuses and guarantees, and interestingly, this isn't just for revenue generating staff,' said James Rushworth, managing director at Profile Search & Selection.
But said Global Search Partners' Mr Cheong: 'The difficult part right now is that currently employed candidates find it unattractive to move because of the salary cuts in other companies.
'Given these unbalanced circumstances, it is difficult for anyone to make considered guesses on salary levels.'
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