eFinancialCareers

The credit crunch and the threat of international fraud are bringing forensic accountants out of the shadows in Asia. These financial sector detectives are becoming an increasingly popular choice for compliance roles at banks in Hong Kong and Singapore. Hong Kong firms are hiring forensic accountants for jobs in compliance, risk and anti-money laundering, according to Nicholas Neal, managing director at recruitment company Optimum. “China is creating demand for... Read more

Forget London – Australians are going to Asia to snap up middle and back-office jobs. There are plenty of opportunities across a wide range of functions, says Louise Langridge, of recruiter Morgan McKinley. Risk roles are flavour of the month and demand is strong in operations (with good product knowledge) and compliance, especially at mid to senior management level, she adds. IT gurus should board a plane to... Read more

In risky times, it’s hardly surprising that financial institutions are going to town on risk specialists – particularly counterparty risk analysts who can help them ascertain whether the hedge funds and other clients they’re doing business with are liable to go under. “There has been increased interest but it’s been hard to get really good people in the counterparty space,” confirms Luke Heath, managing director of Chandler Heath. One player said to... Read more

Under Australia’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorism Financing legislation, introduced in 2006, all companies have identification and reporting obligations regarding the transfer of any monies – securities, bullion, FX, insurance, superannuation, gambling, fund and bank account transfers. If money laundering’s your thing, it’s good news – jobs are on the up. Steve Ingram, partner, forensics investigations at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and ex Federal Police and general fraud buster, says there has been... Read more

It's not looking good if you fancy landing a job in the Australian financial services market. The Aussie banking sector job market is floundering, according to the most recent monthly instalment of the Olivier Job Index. Report author Bob Olivier, a director of recruiter Olivier Group, attributes the poor results – down 5.12% in February – to the credit crunch, interest rate rises and the stock market sell-off. “Sub-prime write-offs have hurt... Read more

Could it be banks have failed in their 30-year crusade against insider trading? Yes, according to one senior banker. Last month, Caliburn chairman Peter Hunt was reported in the Melbourne Age as saying, “Unusual price movements ahead of takeover announcements and capital raisings in this market are frustratingly commonplace.” Hunt’s frank comments follow hot on the heels of the SocGen fiasco and trader suspensions at Credit Suisse. Will banks now rush... Read more

Forget US business schools, a new study suggests MBAs from China see the biggest boost to their earnings once the course has finished. The Financial Times’ 2008 MBA report found that alumni from Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University and Beijing’s China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) land the biggest salary increases upon graduation – 177% and 157% respectively. By comparison, graduates from a big name like the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School... Read more

There are signs that Australia’s appetite for banking talent isn’t quite what it was. According to the latest Olivier Internet Job Index, banking and finance was one of the slowest growing sectors in the past 12 months, dropping 1.45% in January. Is the sky falling in on the banking recruitment market? Bob Olivier, the report’s author, and director at Olivier Recruitment Group, says he’s not convinced: “We’re putting it down to interest... Read more

Senior women in Australia earn 50% less than their male counterparts, according to a Federal Government report. Is the same true in banking? No – at least not according to Bob Olivier, a director at the Olivier Recruitment Group in Sydney. He says the report’s findings astonished him. “My experience is that clients won’t offer a job to Julie rather than Steve to save on salary. It might be that if... Read more

Australia hasn’t lived up to its promise for ANZ’s ex-group managing director, Steve Targett. How common is it for immigrant bankers to come unstuck? In the case of Targett, the stakes are high and getting higher. Last month, he upped his damages claim from AU$2.1m to a hefty AU$57m, according to a report in the Australian Financial Review. Targett, a former banker with Lloyds TSB, claims he left his well-paid job... Read more

It’s often the case that when senior management changes occur, the after-effects can be felt through the organisation for some time to come. It’s too early to tell what sort of executive after-effects might develop following the departure of Macquarie Bank’s long-standing CEO Alan Moss in May, but most believe it will be pretty much business as usual on the recruitment front when new boss Nicholas Moore steps in. Macquarie expects to... Read more

Regardless of market uncertainty, there are several reasons why banks in Asia should keep hiring. And they are…. Talent shortages Matthew Hoyle, Asia Pacific director of headhunter Matthew Hoyle International, says: “There is still a tremendous shortage in the five to nine years' experience bracket across nearly all divisions, due to SARS and the Asian Crisis. No one was trained and hardly anyone hired during that period.” China Mainland Chinese banks have huge... Read more

Who’s hiring in Victoria? Big banks, according to recruiters. Sadly, the spokeswomen for both Melbourne-based ANZ Bank and National Australia Bank were unwilling to comment on their organisation’s hiring needs for 2008, but recruiters assure us both banks are staffing up in Melbourne during the first quarter of this year. “We have seen a big increase in demand for business development and relationship management staff due to new sales budgets that have... Read more

Stock markets have further to fall, Bank of America’s making redundancies, and recruiters say some banks are already scaling back Asian hiring plans. Reuters reports that Bank of America is scaling back its DCM business in Asia Pac and making around 15 people – mostly structurers and originators – redundant. After steep falls of 20% or more from last year's peaks, many equities now look cheap. But even after the Federal Reserve's dramatic “emergency”... Read more

There's more to the Middle East than sovereign wealth funds. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have made headlines in the past few weeks, thanks to the hyperactive investments of their sovereign wealth funds, which have helped several international banks out of a sticky sub-prime situation. But there’s more to the region than state investments. International banks are also present – and hiring. Macquarie opened a Dubai office around two... Read more

With one breath local banking chiefs are assuring everyone jobs here are safe, with the other they’re quietly telling staff to pack their bags. Last week, Citigroup Australia became what may be the first of many banks to publicly let staff go. The struggling US bank retrenched around 20 staff in its Sydney equities and fixed income divisions, including members of its prop trading desk, just days after its local chief... Read more

Losses of $13.7bn aren’t a great look for UBS, especially with some analysts predicting more write-downs in 2008. Globally, jobs at the Swiss-based bank are on the line, with 1,500 cut at the investment bank in the months leading up to Christmas, and the possibility of more to come. Does this include Australia, where UBS ranked number one as the leading M&A advisor in 2007? Apparently not: the official word is that... Read more

Grange Securities’ tribulations over CDO sales could be good news for securities lawyers. Australia’s local councils are claiming Grange Securities, the local branch of US bank Lehman Brothers, didn’t act in their best interests by promoting Lehman-originated Federation CDOs which were exposed to the US sub prime market. To rub salt into the gaping wound, Federation copped a mark-down to 16 cents in the dollar late last year, leaving the councils... Read more