4 in 5 banks rely on outsourcing for overseas operations

They even cited offshoring as an effective HR strategy.

According to Robert Half, four in five (81%) banks and finance companies in Hong Kong currently outsource parts of their operations overseas and nearly two-thirds (63%) of them cited offshoring as an effective human resource (HR) strategy.

Here's more from Robert Half:

Based on a survey of 550 senior business and finance leaders within the Banking and Financial Services sector in Asia, including 150 respondents in Hong Kong, 63% of the Hong Kong banks and financial companies found offshoring effective, only 11% said it is ineffective and 26% have either not used offshoring or do not know about it.

According to the survey, 65% of small companies consider offshoring to be effective in their HR strategy when compared to 62% of medium firms and 55% of large companies.

In contrast to other markets in Asia, where more transactional roles such as accounts payable and receivable are predominantly offshored, the business functions in Hong Kong that are most commonly outsourced overseas are:

· Financial reporting (33%)
· Financial accounting (29%)
· Management reporting (22%)
· Planning analysis (20%)
· Accounts payable / receivable management (17%)
· Billing and invoicing (17%)