Bank jobs in Singapore under pressure
Banks are seeing their margins squeezed by a weak macroeconomy and some like Barclays and Standard Chartered have initiated job cuts globally. Singapore, being a key financial centre in Asia, is not immune to these layoffs.
By Linette Lim
Posted 28 Dec 2015 17:41 Updated 28 Dec 2015 23:28
SINGAPORE: The financial sector is a key source of jobs in Singapore, employing more than 200,000 people as of September, according to data from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). It also contributes to more than 12 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
While latest MOM statistics have showed that there is still overall job growth in the sector - with 2,600 jobs added in the third quarter - some areas, from support functions to equities-related and investment banking roles, have come under pressure.
Global banks are seeing their margins squeezed by a weak macroeconomy and higher costs arising from tighter regulatory oversight. Additionally, across the sector worldwide, nearly 100,000 banking jobs were estimated to have been cut in 2015, according to an estimate by the Financial Times.
Major banks like Standard Chartered, Barclays, and Deutsche Bank have initiated job cuts globally and as Singapore is a key financial centre in Asia, it is not immune from these layoffs.
"We have seen a lot of offshoring happening, not just this year, but in 2014 as well," said Robert Walters Southeast Asia's managing director, Mr Toby Fowlston. "We've seen areas like product control downsize in a number of banking businesses, and also some of the back-office functions as well, where we've seen that shipped to cheaper cost locations."
But the concern is more than just over jobs being moved to lower-cost jurisdictions. Trading and deal-making is drying up amid a more uncertain macro environment and this is threatening equities-related and investment banking jobs. At the same time, new business models are disrupting traditional banking - a point underscored by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in a speech last month.
"Digitisation, fintech - those are challenges to the traditional bank model," said Mr Ho Kok Yong, Financial Services Industry leader at Deloitte Singapore. "I think with digitisation, online banking, there's even greater reason for banks to actually cut headcount. So I would say that in the next one or two years, we will see a lot of this happening.
On the other hand, there are areas that will be in need of headcount, with vacancies exceeding the number of applicants.
Said Adecco Singapore's country manager Femke Hellemons: "The increasing emphasis on corporate governance, risk management, also drives the demand for compliance, risk management, and operations professionals. At the same time, we see a strong demand for IT finance engineers, and also relationship managers, as banks are looking to market customised solutions for their corporate clients."
As banks reorganise their business to cope with a changing business environment, recruitment consultancies have said they see hiring managers in banks here adopt a wait-and-see approach. According to Robert Walters, this has given rise to a greater use of contracting, with staff coming in on six- to 12-month fixed term contracts.
- CNA/hs
- wong chee tat :)
Showing posts with label Barclays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barclays. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Barclays Cuts Up to 12,000 Jobs as Quarterly Profit Falls
Barclays Cuts Up to 12,000 Jobs as Quarterly Profit Falls
By Howard Mustoe and Gavin Finch Feb 11, 2014 8:36 PM GMT+0800 7 Comments Email Print
Barclays Plc (BARC), the U.K.’s second-biggest bank by assets, will eliminate as many as 12,000 jobs this year after fourth-quarter profit tumbled.
About 7,000 of the cuts will be in the U.K., Chief Executive Officer Antony Jenkins told reporters on a conference call today. Adjusted pretax profit fell to 191 million pounds ($314 million) in the fourth quarter from 1.4 billion pounds in the year-earlier period, Barclays said. The bank will set aside 2.4 billion pounds for 2013 bonuses, up from 2.17 billion pounds.
Jenkins is cutting jobs to remove 1.7 billion pounds of costs by 2015 as the bank faces charges relating to litigation and regulatory penalties and regulators impose tougher rules on capital. The cuts may need to step up if the lender wants to compete with investment banks in the U.S., said Chirantan Barua, an analyst at at Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd. in London
“To be serious they structurally need to cut 15 to 20 percent of managing directors, straight off,” said Barua, who has a market perform rating on the stock. “The cost-cutting story from Barclays will get even more painful given the recovery of the U.S. broker-dealers.”
Cost Target
The stock dropped 5.2 percent to 260.6 pence by 11:33 a.m. in London trading today. The bank has fallen 6.7 percent in the past 12 months, lagging behind the FTSE All Share Index’s 8.1 percent advance in the period.
Jenkins said today he’s confident of achieving his cost target even as expenses as a proportion of revenue rose to 71 percent in 2013 from 63 percent in the year-earlier period.
The investment bank had a pretax loss of 329 million pounds in the last three months of the year, compared with a profit of 760 million pounds in the year-earlier period.
Jenkins is cutting costs at the investment bank and demonstrate the lender has changed its culture after the company was fined for manipulating benchmark interest rates. The company said today managing directors’ performance has been assessed against whether they showed “the right values and behaviors.”
Barclays will cut 220 managing directors and 600 director-level employees, Jenkins said. The reductions come after the lender eliminated 7,650 positions in 2013. The bank employed a total of 139,600 people at the end of last year.
Incentive awards at the investment bank rose to 1.57 billion pounds, or about 60,100 pounds for each employee, from 1.39 billion pounds, about 54,500 pounds a person, Barclays said. Jenkins has said he won’t take a bonus for last year.
Competitive Pay
“We pay for performance and we pay competitively,” Jenkins, 52, said in an interview with BBC Radio 4 today. “interview on BBC Radio 4 today. ‘‘We employ people from Singapore to San Francisco -- we compete in global markets for talent. If we’re to act in the best interests of our shareholders we have to ensure that we have the best people in the firm.’’
The company paid 859 million pounds in dividends to investors, or 6.5 pence a share.
‘‘It cannot be right in any business for the executive bonus pool to be nearly three times bigger than the total dividend pay out to the company’s owners,’’ Roger Barker, director of corporate governance at the Institute of Directors, said in an e-mailed statement. He was referring to awards across the bank. ‘‘The question must be asked –-for whom is this institution being run?’’
‘Remain Committed’
Costs as a proportion of revenue ‘‘rose in 2013 mainly as a consequence of reduced income, but we remain committed to achieving a ratio in the mid-50s by 2015,’’ Barclays said.
Fixed-income, currencies and commodities revenue, the single biggest source of income for Barclays’s investment bank, fell by 16 percent in the fourth quarter from the year-earlier period, while income from investment banking, which includes underwriting and mergers advisory, shrank 5 percent, Barclays said.
The five biggest U.S. investment banks saw their total revenue from trading fixed income, currencies and commodities, a mainstay of the business, fall 4.2 percent to $10.2 billion in the fourth quarter, data compiled by Bloomberg Industries show.
Full-year pretax profit at the investment bank declined 37 percent to 2.52 billion pounds from the year-earlier period. That missed the 2.99 billion-pound average analyst estimate compiled by the bank. Revenue declined 9 percent to 10.7 billion pounds.
Regain Trust
Barclays yesterday reported a 26 percent drop in annual adjusted pretax profit to 5.2 billion pounds, missing the 5.4 billion-pound consensus analyst estimate compiled by the bank. Net income was 540 million pounds, compared a loss of 624 million pounds the year earlier as impairments shrank. Adjusted return on average shareholders’ equity, a measure of profitability, declined to 4.5 percent, from 9 percent.
Barclays, which is striving to regain trust following a series of scandals including the manipulation of Libor benchmark interest rates, said last month it would take a 330 million-pound charge relating to penalties and lawsuits in the fourth quarter.
The bank has said it’s in talks with regulators about a possible criminal leak of client account information. As many as 27,000 customer files containing personal and financial information were taken, the Mail on Sunday reported on Feb. 9, citing an unidentified whistle-blower. It’s unclear how the files were stolen, the newspaper said, adding data was sold to brokers to be used for ‘‘investment scams.”
Barclays’s core Tier 1 equity ratio under the latest rules set by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision fell 30 basis points in the quarter to 9.3 percent. That was 30 basis points below the estimate of Jason Napier, an analyst at Deutsche Bank.
The lender’s capital as a percentage of assets, or leverage ratio, was 3 percent, ahead of its plan to to reach the figure by June. The bank raised 5.8 billion pounds from shareholders in a rights offering in October.
The lender’s wealth and investment management business posted a 73 million-pound loss for the quarter from a 105 million-pound adjusted pretax profit in the year-earlier period.
To contact the reporters on this story: Howard Mustoe in London at hmustoe@bloomberg.net; Gavin Finch in London at gfinch@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Keith Campbell at k.campbell@bloomberg.net
- wong chee tat :)
By Howard Mustoe and Gavin Finch Feb 11, 2014 8:36 PM GMT+0800 7 Comments Email Print
Barclays Plc (BARC), the U.K.’s second-biggest bank by assets, will eliminate as many as 12,000 jobs this year after fourth-quarter profit tumbled.
About 7,000 of the cuts will be in the U.K., Chief Executive Officer Antony Jenkins told reporters on a conference call today. Adjusted pretax profit fell to 191 million pounds ($314 million) in the fourth quarter from 1.4 billion pounds in the year-earlier period, Barclays said. The bank will set aside 2.4 billion pounds for 2013 bonuses, up from 2.17 billion pounds.
Jenkins is cutting jobs to remove 1.7 billion pounds of costs by 2015 as the bank faces charges relating to litigation and regulatory penalties and regulators impose tougher rules on capital. The cuts may need to step up if the lender wants to compete with investment banks in the U.S., said Chirantan Barua, an analyst at at Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd. in London
“To be serious they structurally need to cut 15 to 20 percent of managing directors, straight off,” said Barua, who has a market perform rating on the stock. “The cost-cutting story from Barclays will get even more painful given the recovery of the U.S. broker-dealers.”
Cost Target
The stock dropped 5.2 percent to 260.6 pence by 11:33 a.m. in London trading today. The bank has fallen 6.7 percent in the past 12 months, lagging behind the FTSE All Share Index’s 8.1 percent advance in the period.
Jenkins said today he’s confident of achieving his cost target even as expenses as a proportion of revenue rose to 71 percent in 2013 from 63 percent in the year-earlier period.
The investment bank had a pretax loss of 329 million pounds in the last three months of the year, compared with a profit of 760 million pounds in the year-earlier period.
Jenkins is cutting costs at the investment bank and demonstrate the lender has changed its culture after the company was fined for manipulating benchmark interest rates. The company said today managing directors’ performance has been assessed against whether they showed “the right values and behaviors.”
Barclays will cut 220 managing directors and 600 director-level employees, Jenkins said. The reductions come after the lender eliminated 7,650 positions in 2013. The bank employed a total of 139,600 people at the end of last year.
Incentive awards at the investment bank rose to 1.57 billion pounds, or about 60,100 pounds for each employee, from 1.39 billion pounds, about 54,500 pounds a person, Barclays said. Jenkins has said he won’t take a bonus for last year.
Competitive Pay
“We pay for performance and we pay competitively,” Jenkins, 52, said in an interview with BBC Radio 4 today. “interview on BBC Radio 4 today. ‘‘We employ people from Singapore to San Francisco -- we compete in global markets for talent. If we’re to act in the best interests of our shareholders we have to ensure that we have the best people in the firm.’’
The company paid 859 million pounds in dividends to investors, or 6.5 pence a share.
‘‘It cannot be right in any business for the executive bonus pool to be nearly three times bigger than the total dividend pay out to the company’s owners,’’ Roger Barker, director of corporate governance at the Institute of Directors, said in an e-mailed statement. He was referring to awards across the bank. ‘‘The question must be asked –-for whom is this institution being run?’’
‘Remain Committed’
Costs as a proportion of revenue ‘‘rose in 2013 mainly as a consequence of reduced income, but we remain committed to achieving a ratio in the mid-50s by 2015,’’ Barclays said.
Fixed-income, currencies and commodities revenue, the single biggest source of income for Barclays’s investment bank, fell by 16 percent in the fourth quarter from the year-earlier period, while income from investment banking, which includes underwriting and mergers advisory, shrank 5 percent, Barclays said.
The five biggest U.S. investment banks saw their total revenue from trading fixed income, currencies and commodities, a mainstay of the business, fall 4.2 percent to $10.2 billion in the fourth quarter, data compiled by Bloomberg Industries show.
Full-year pretax profit at the investment bank declined 37 percent to 2.52 billion pounds from the year-earlier period. That missed the 2.99 billion-pound average analyst estimate compiled by the bank. Revenue declined 9 percent to 10.7 billion pounds.
Regain Trust
Barclays yesterday reported a 26 percent drop in annual adjusted pretax profit to 5.2 billion pounds, missing the 5.4 billion-pound consensus analyst estimate compiled by the bank. Net income was 540 million pounds, compared a loss of 624 million pounds the year earlier as impairments shrank. Adjusted return on average shareholders’ equity, a measure of profitability, declined to 4.5 percent, from 9 percent.
Barclays, which is striving to regain trust following a series of scandals including the manipulation of Libor benchmark interest rates, said last month it would take a 330 million-pound charge relating to penalties and lawsuits in the fourth quarter.
The bank has said it’s in talks with regulators about a possible criminal leak of client account information. As many as 27,000 customer files containing personal and financial information were taken, the Mail on Sunday reported on Feb. 9, citing an unidentified whistle-blower. It’s unclear how the files were stolen, the newspaper said, adding data was sold to brokers to be used for ‘‘investment scams.”
Barclays’s core Tier 1 equity ratio under the latest rules set by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision fell 30 basis points in the quarter to 9.3 percent. That was 30 basis points below the estimate of Jason Napier, an analyst at Deutsche Bank.
The lender’s capital as a percentage of assets, or leverage ratio, was 3 percent, ahead of its plan to to reach the figure by June. The bank raised 5.8 billion pounds from shareholders in a rights offering in October.
The lender’s wealth and investment management business posted a 73 million-pound loss for the quarter from a 105 million-pound adjusted pretax profit in the year-earlier period.
To contact the reporters on this story: Howard Mustoe in London at hmustoe@bloomberg.net; Gavin Finch in London at gfinch@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Keith Campbell at k.campbell@bloomberg.net
- wong chee tat :)
Monday, July 1, 2013
EU investigators accuse 13 banks in derivatives probe
EU investigators accuse 13 banks in derivatives probe
POSTED: 01 Jul 2013 10:00 PM
EU investigators accused 13 top banks including Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs on Monday of colluding over derivatives trading, in a new move to tighten banking standards.
BRUSSELS: EU investigators accused 13 top banks including Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs on Monday of colluding over derivatives trading, in a new move to tighten banking standards.
A preliminary investigation by the Commission showed that banks worked together to exclude exchanges from the derivatives market.
This was allegedly because they feared involvement by the exchanges would cut into their huge profits from over-the-counter trading.
Some aspects of derivatives trading have been blamed for exacerbating the financial crisis.
The EU's Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said that the banks now had the chance to respond to the detailed accusations.
He said that they could face fines if the charges were confirmed once the investigation had been completed.
"If it is confirmed that banks collectively blocked exchanges from the derivatives market, the Commission could decide to impose sanctions," Almunia said at a press briefing.
"Exchange trading of credit derivatives improves market transparency and stability," he said.
Collusion between banks to prevent this type of trading would be "a serious breach of our competition rules", he said.
Almunia declined to give an estimate of the size of possible fines on the banks but he said the CDS market at the moment was worth about 10 trillion euros ($13 trillion).
The collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008 "showed how derivatives trading is able to destabilise the entire financial system," Almunia said.
The EU investigation began in 2011 and has focused on claims that the Deutsche Boerse stock market and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange were excluded from the derivatives market between 2006 and 2009 when the crisis reached its peak.
It said the two exchanges decided to turn to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) and data service provider Markit to obtain the necessary licences but were turned down because the banks had prevented them from doing so.
The 13 European and US banks targeted are: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Bear Stearns, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS.
Four other banks that had been involved in the investigation -- Commerzbank, Societe Generale, Credit Agricole and Wells Fargo -- have been excluded because of a lack of evidence.
In May, a US pension fund for Cleveland metal workers initiated legal proceedings against some of the banks identified by the European Commission saying it had suffered financial losses because of "an illegal cartel".
The fund said the number of victims of the alleged cartel could reach "tens of thousands", and claimed the derivatives market had been heavily distorted by those who controlled it.
The European Commission has worked to take on a stronger role in policing the financial markets in the wake of the global financial crisis and the eurozone sovereign debt crisis.
Last month, it said it was preparing a set of proposals to tighten up oversight of key market benchmarks, especially of interest rates, after recent rigging scandals in London.
These could include moving LIBOR, a global interest rate indicator, from London to Paris where it would be supervised by the European Securities and Markets Authority.
Such a move would very likely anger the British government which jealously guards the City of London, home to one of the world's largest financial markets.
LIBOR, or London Interbank Offered Rate, is a flagship reference instrument used all over the world, affecting what banks, businesses and individuals pay to borrow money.
London's role has been undermined by revelations that major banks, among them Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS, have manipulated LIBOR to their advantage, especially during the turmoil and aftermath of the 2008 crisis.
British regulators have laid out plans for a new system combining survey-based rates and objective data to replace the current system, hoping to head off EU efforts to take overall control of such a key financial market instrument.
- AFP/al
- wong chee tat :)
POSTED: 01 Jul 2013 10:00 PM
EU investigators accused 13 top banks including Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs on Monday of colluding over derivatives trading, in a new move to tighten banking standards.
BRUSSELS: EU investigators accused 13 top banks including Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs on Monday of colluding over derivatives trading, in a new move to tighten banking standards.
A preliminary investigation by the Commission showed that banks worked together to exclude exchanges from the derivatives market.
This was allegedly because they feared involvement by the exchanges would cut into their huge profits from over-the-counter trading.
Some aspects of derivatives trading have been blamed for exacerbating the financial crisis.
The EU's Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said that the banks now had the chance to respond to the detailed accusations.
He said that they could face fines if the charges were confirmed once the investigation had been completed.
"If it is confirmed that banks collectively blocked exchanges from the derivatives market, the Commission could decide to impose sanctions," Almunia said at a press briefing.
"Exchange trading of credit derivatives improves market transparency and stability," he said.
Collusion between banks to prevent this type of trading would be "a serious breach of our competition rules", he said.
Almunia declined to give an estimate of the size of possible fines on the banks but he said the CDS market at the moment was worth about 10 trillion euros ($13 trillion).
The collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008 "showed how derivatives trading is able to destabilise the entire financial system," Almunia said.
The EU investigation began in 2011 and has focused on claims that the Deutsche Boerse stock market and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange were excluded from the derivatives market between 2006 and 2009 when the crisis reached its peak.
It said the two exchanges decided to turn to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) and data service provider Markit to obtain the necessary licences but were turned down because the banks had prevented them from doing so.
The 13 European and US banks targeted are: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Bear Stearns, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS.
Four other banks that had been involved in the investigation -- Commerzbank, Societe Generale, Credit Agricole and Wells Fargo -- have been excluded because of a lack of evidence.
In May, a US pension fund for Cleveland metal workers initiated legal proceedings against some of the banks identified by the European Commission saying it had suffered financial losses because of "an illegal cartel".
The fund said the number of victims of the alleged cartel could reach "tens of thousands", and claimed the derivatives market had been heavily distorted by those who controlled it.
The European Commission has worked to take on a stronger role in policing the financial markets in the wake of the global financial crisis and the eurozone sovereign debt crisis.
Last month, it said it was preparing a set of proposals to tighten up oversight of key market benchmarks, especially of interest rates, after recent rigging scandals in London.
These could include moving LIBOR, a global interest rate indicator, from London to Paris where it would be supervised by the European Securities and Markets Authority.
Such a move would very likely anger the British government which jealously guards the City of London, home to one of the world's largest financial markets.
LIBOR, or London Interbank Offered Rate, is a flagship reference instrument used all over the world, affecting what banks, businesses and individuals pay to borrow money.
London's role has been undermined by revelations that major banks, among them Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS, have manipulated LIBOR to their advantage, especially during the turmoil and aftermath of the 2008 crisis.
British regulators have laid out plans for a new system combining survey-based rates and objective data to replace the current system, hoping to head off EU efforts to take overall control of such a key financial market instrument.
- AFP/al
- wong chee tat :)
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