eFinancialCareers

Australian retail banks could be about to ramp up their use of contractors, as permanent headcount is frozen or cut back. In late January/early February we could see a large increase in contracting, says Sharlene Turner, director of banking and finance at Human Solutions Group. “The downsizing currently taking place will increase the workload of staff that remain, but it won’t be long until they become overworked and need help from... Read more

It’s still not on the same scale as Wall Street, but Australian banks are catching the job-cutting bug. Mergers, restructuring, IT outsourcing and the financial crisis are combining to create a bleak Q4 for finance-sector employment. Macquarie is said to be planning cuts and internal redeployments in its property and real estate divisions, due to lack of deal flow in recent months. A banking sector expert, who asked not be... Read more

A job on Collins Street might be safer than one on Wall Street, but the global financial crisis is still sucking some confidence from the local market. “Recruitment is quieter than this time last year across all financial services markets and there is a preference for contracting in all but the most senior roles. When someone leaves, the firm will always try to use its internal resources first. It’s becoming... Read more

Get ready for a rocky 2009 – KPMG reckons banks in Australia will slash 10,000 jobs over the next year. The accountancy firm’s recently released annual banking statistics survey states that more consolidation will lead to fewer, larger banks. The scale, scope and speed of the financial crisis will also help to send headcount tumbling. Westpac's AU$17bn takeover of St George is likely to result in redundancies for 10% of... Read more

Finance sector recruitment in Brisbane is suffering like the rest of the country, but certain jobs remain in demand. Compliance, risk, actuarial, audit, IT, regional banking and agri-finance professionals are all comparatively difficult to find, according to Andrew Steele, general manager, people & performance services at Suncorp. “The Brisbane-based candidate pool for specialised banking roles tends to be smaller because the relative scale of corporate head office operations in... Read more

In the wake of the global financial crisis, a leading headhunter has described the Australian banking recruitment market as “two-speed”. John Coles, CEO of Executive Group International, says global banks are in limbo as they wait for direction from new owners and/or overseas masters. Meanwhile, Australia’s comparatively strong economic growth and its mining industry are helping to hold up local commercial banks with minimal exposure to sub-prime calamities. “The... Read more

Despite the dramatic upheavals in US investment banks, at Australia’s retail banks it’s steady as she goes. Hiring activity has calmed a little but that goes back several months so isn’t because of the US disintegration, says Edmund Gill at recruiter Hays. “Any hiring slowdown really began in July. Liquidity is tight, so there’s been an awful lot of prudence in the past three to six months. Banks are not... Read more

Thinking of working in Singapore? Employers and candidates there have become more cautious in the wake of the global financial crisis, but the local jobs market remains in comparatively good shape and is still attracting foreign talent. These are some of the key issues emerging from this week’s eFinancialCareers roundtable discussion, which was attended by senior internal recruiters from several of Singapore’s leading financial institutions. The roundtable panelists, who asked not... Read more

The potential Westpac/St George merger, which would create the country’s biggest lender by market value, is set to edge Sydney slightly further in front of Melbourne as Australia’s premier banking hub. Both Westpac and St George are Sydney-based, so the newly combined bank would also be headquartered in the harbour city. Mary Grant, principal consultant in recruitment firm Hudson's banking and finance division, comments: “Westpac’s Sydney headquarters is not... Read more

UOB is still busy hiring in the PRC as it continues to expand its franchise across the country, but the search for banking talent in Chinese cities is not without challenges. Chua Tian Chu, executive vice president for UOB in China, tells us: “We currently have over 300 staff in UOB (China), and will grow our headcount as we expand our network and product offerings.” In preparation for... Read more

Just when you thought offshore jobs were in decline, ANZ pops up with an expanded growth strategy for South East Asia. The bank hopes to be a trailblazer for other Australian firms as 'emerging Asia' comes to mean more than just China and India. ANZ has strong penetration of Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. And in Cambodia the three year-old ANZ Royal Bank is the largest in the market and... Read more

Bank of Ireland has opened a project finance office in Sydney and is looking to create more jobs in the city, according to Tom Hayes, chief executive of the firm’s corporate banking division. “Over the next 12 to 18 months, we see significant opportunities in a number of key market areas, including the electricity market (particularly generation), oil and gas plus infrastructure/PPP,” says Hayes. “We have a solid pipeline of... 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

Wall Street is definitely not the flavour of the month at the moment, especially when it comes to investment banking. It’s not really surprising, therefore, that many Australians working in the Big Apple are checking out their job options for fear they may not have a job in the very near future. According to Adam Gillibrand, Australian-based executive director for US recruitment and consulting firm Options Group, an increasing number of expat... 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