Finance Market
Hiring across Banks, securities brokerages and asset managers has been very active in 2022, from front to back office.
Around half of the hiring has focussed on newly added headcount and expansion opportunities. The headcount volatility and high levels of candidate turnover within the virtual banking industry continued to give a negative impression to potential candidates making It more difficult to attract candidates compared to when the virtual banks kicked off their hiring back in 2019.
Traditional local and Chinese banks continued to hire throughout 2022. More candidates were willing to move after COVID-19 waves subsided from the early and middle parts of the year. They saw recruitment processes accelerate, with many of these businesses able to identify their chosen candidate within a month. International global banks remained stable and didn’t seem to make many finance hires, given many of the roles were replacement hires backfilling internal transfers. Counteroffers have been particularly aggressive this year. More people opting to leave Hong Kong than would ordinarily be the case combined with fewer people wanting to relocate to Hong Kong meant organizations did everything they could to keep hold of their excellent people given the shortage of available options who could replace them in shorter supply than before. Even tier-one investment banks suffered from candidates reneging on generosity, such as companies' aggressiveness in their counteroffer to retain people who had resigned.
Key drivers/Regulations
ESG/Green Finance has been a hot topic this year. Consulting businesses are expanding their teams in this area. Some local banks are setting up new teams and are open to hiring candidates from different industries outside financial services.
IFRS9 remained essential for financial reporting, while Basel III knowledge proved essential for many regulatory reporting hires.
Many firms have found doing business in China challenging, given the Covid protocols in place, but several international businesses continue to invest and expand their business in China. Such institutions tended to hire candidates with Chinese Banking experience, knowledge of China regulations (CBRC) and knowledge of China Tax.