Surge in number of financial services jobs available in first three months of 2017

The number of financial services jobs available in Hong Kong and mainland China soared in the first quarter of the year, despite highly publicised job cuts and the prevailing sense of doom that exists across much of the sector.

Some 56 per cent more financial services jobs were available in Hong Kong between January and March 2017 than in the last three months of 2016, according to report from global recruitment consultancy Morgan McKinley, and in mainland China 105 per cent more.

Instead it reflects the move by financial institutions – particularly from the mainland – to develop new products, services or lines of business, and they are recruiting strongly in both locations to achieve this.

“Financial institutions of all kinds, including banks, insurers and asset managers have been recruiting in areas such as technology, especially artificial intelligence, and in compliance,” said Richie Holliday, Morgan McKinley’s chief operations officer for Asia Pacific.

China Merchants Bank, for example, told an investor briefing last week that it planned to spend about 1 per cent of its future profits on financial technology and development, and that according to its own calculations the cost of a mobile-based transaction was 0.27 yuan – just 1.8 per cent of the cost of an equivalent counter-based transaction.