'Expats get all the promotions': What bugs bankers in Singapore

Banks may be marketing themselves as tech-focused and egalitarian, but their employees in Asia don’t seem to be buying into the hype.

As we reported previously, Hong Kong and Singapore finance professionals who took part in a recent eFinancialCareers survey are less satisfied with their lives than their counterparts in New York, London and Continental Europe are.

What’s bugging them? In the workplace at least, it’s not what you might expect. When asked to comment on why they are (or aren't) feeling fulfilled at work, some Asia-based respondents did mention predictable banker gripes such as bad bonuses, chronic stress and long working hours.


More surprisingly, several others complained that their bank still has antiquated IT, despite the billions of dollars being poured into technology projects in the finance sector.

One Hong Kong-based survey respondent – who works in prime brokerage, a tech-dependent function – complains of “poor IT infrastructure” at his firm. Similarly, a futures salesperson says senior management lack “vision” around technology strategy and are too focused on processes at the expense of taking an “entrepreneurial” approach.

“It is mentally exhausting to move things. The tech industry is moving at such a fast pace and banking still sticks to age-old techniques,” says a banker in Singapore who participated in our survey of 1,650 finance professionals globally. Another respondent in the Republic says his bank is “slow” to upgrade its systems.


https://news.efinancialcareers.com/sg-en/3000141/banks-singapore-hong-kong-favour-expats-over-locals/

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