WELCOME
...to the 14th edition of house and, after a brief hiatus, hiring seems to be back to levels seen pre-Q1. We are seeing headcount budget approvals in banks, a surge in asset managers hiring compliance officers and a focus on ‘cyber’ across all sectors. The latter perhaps best highlighted in the US by the SEC moving cyber expert, Christopher Hetner, internally to report directly to the CEO, Mary Jo White...
Time to leave banks alone in Asia? Maybe not...
The new head of the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, Andrew Bailey, has said its time to end banker bashing... Could this mean a reduction in compliance hiring in financial services? It seems that the Singaporean regulator, MAS, have a different idea as they revoke the banking license of BSI for gross misconduct. It will be interesting to see the approach that Asia regulators take in the months to come.
Panama Papers pushing Cybersecurity to the forefront...HK Cybersecurity
To date, industry specific regulatory activity in relation to cybersecurity in Hong Kong has been limited. However, due to the increased frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks and high profile data breaches, many regulators, including the SFC and HKMA, see cybersecurity as a major priority and are starting to take action.
The HKMA recently released the Cybersecurity Fortification Initiative, which aims to raise the level of cybersecurity of the banks in Hong Kong. This initiative is the most comprehensive statement on cybersecurity by a Hong Kong regulator and we anticipate hiring across industries in this rapidly growing sector.
Offshoring...
Various compliance departments have begun to move their KYC and AML functions back offshore. Whereas previously institutions looked to build larger teams in these areas and centralise these functions in Hong Kong or Singapore, it seems that now the opposite is occurring.
A number of investment banks, having built large teams quickly, are now trying to cut costs by relocating employees to centres such as Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai or Manila. Will we see a flood of KYC candidates on to the market? or will they be quickly snapped up by asset managers, insurers, smaller banks or even corporates?