Hong Kong's financial firms willing to shell out higher pays for contractors

Even permanent workers are getting temporary jobs.

According to Hays latest quarterly report of skills in demand for July to September, Hays says that many financial institutions are now offering higher salaries and benefits in order to attract candidates away from their existing jobs.

“Many contractors within the financial services industry are now working at a premium and many permanent employees are open to temporary positions based on the potential to earn a higher compensation. This in turn is also pushing rates up,” says Dean Stallard, Regional Director of Hays in Hong Kong

“In middle office roles we are seeing increasing demand for trade support contractors from both international and Chinese banks. As competition increases for experienced trade support contractors, banks are making their salary and benefits packages more attractive in order to entice candidates.”

Meanwhile, in the front office corporate banking space demand is increasing for Senior Corporate Bankers and Senior Relationship Managers.

“Candidates who can bring new corporate banking clients to a bank are highly sought. Employers also want Senior Relationship Managers who can manage China corporates or Hong Kong mid-cap corporates,” says Dean.

“We are seeing an increasing number of employers become far more open to recruiting overseas Chinese returners as candidates who have mainland deal experience are still highly preferred.”

There is also high demand for M&A banking, Corporate Finance and Capital Markets professionals. “As Hong Kong is the financial hub and entryway to China there is still a lot of activity in the front office investment banking space. Candidates with Mandarin and Cantonese language skills in addition to strong cross-border deal experience are in highest demand,” says Dean.

“Another area of growth can be found within risk management. We’re seeing high demand in special assets and remedial management for Credit Approvers and Senior Credit Analysts. Given the aggressive growth of the commercial banking sector over the past few years, not all new clients have been profitable and there are now a high number of delinquent accounts and non-performing loans. This has created a need to recruit within credit risk departments.

“A significant candidate trend we have noticed is that job seekers are slowly becoming more accepting of temporary roles in Hong Kong,” says Dean. “At the same time these candidates are increasingly interested in employers that offer work-life balance.”