In regards to the allegations of hiring their own kind and lack of Singaporeans with the required skills, I can say with certainty that lot of what is said is absolute crap. There is no doubt that in certain positions Singaporean lacked the necessary skill but this does not explain the large amount of foreigners in the industry. It is ridiculous to think that Singaporeans can’t do tasks like data processing, IT installation, transaction handling, cash settlements, accounting, audit, risk management, credit analysis. These are the jobs in the back office and support areas. Now in the front office roles, where one need more than a good qualification, in markets sales and trading, corporate lending, project, trade and commodity finance, how many Singaporeans the banks cannot find that they need so many foreigners? In the more exotic, complex parts of these functions, I grant that FTs are needed from sophisticated financial centers like London or New York but Indians and Pinoys? I walked into a meeting at Stanchart to discuss a forthcoming S$ bond issue and they had 3 Indians and 1 Singaporean sitting opposite me for a simple, unsophisticated transaction. If this is about not having enough qualified Singaporeans or not enough skills, please there are hundreds of Singaporeans who are forced into early retirement from the industry especially those in the critical front office jobs. There are lots of Singaporean bankers working in HK, Shanghai etc who would like to come home but can’t because no one wanted to hire them. I, myself, regional division head, designated a key personnel in my company, has never seen a job offer to come back to Singapore in the 23 years that I am away. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, I was headhunted 2 times for positions in Singapore, each time the job taken by an Indian who does not hold a candle to my know-how and experience. Yet I am a walk-on for jobs in London and Frankfurt had I wish to leave my present company. This hiring of foreigners in the financial industry is not so much about Singaporeans lacking in the required skills. It is far more about racism – hiring their own kind and about jobs for the boys especially prevalent among the angmos, each doing a favour for one another. All this talk about not having the required skills are more excuses than true reasons for hiring foreigners. ~ Armchair Anarchist, March 9 2014 * Comment first appeared in: MOM: Firms continue to hire too many FT PMETs
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 03:35:53 +0000
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