Singapore bank rankings reveal new hires increased by 5.8% in 2022

RANKINGS: SINGAPORE BANKS Singapore bank rankings reveal new hires increased by 5.8% in 2022

The banks’ rankings saw some slight shuffle as some banks reported lower numbers.

By 2030, women in senior leadership will grow to 20.5%

Singapore banks continue to bolster their rosters in terms of new hires in 2022, registering a 5.8% increase in Asian Banking & Finance’s annual bank rankings compared to a year before.

The rankings, which rates banks in terms of the number of employees, saw some moderate to great increases in the number of hires this year whilst some banks opted to keep employee numbers the same. Meanwhile, a number of banks saw slight dips in employee numbers causing them to slip from their previous place.

DBS continues to hold the top spot with 12,585 employees, an increase of 4.9% from 2021. Standard Chartered and UOB maintained the number of employees at 10,000 and 9,000, placing third and fourth respectively.

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) had a slight dip in its employee count from 3,300 to 3,242 ranking sixth. CIMB bank had a notable dip of 25.2% in its number of employees from 1,237 in 2021 to 925 this year, falling from ninth to 11th place.

During interviews conducted for its annual bank rankings, Asian Banking & Finance found that top Singaporean banks are exceeding the projected regional average growth of hiring women in executive positions.

Deloitte’s Within Reach series predicted that by 2030, women in senior leadership, specifically C-suite, will grow to 20.5%, a moderate increase from 18.5% in 2021.

In DBS’ 2021 sustainability report, 54.3% of their Singapore staff are women. In all of its branches, DBS’ female staff comprises around 49.2% of its workforce.

Brandon Coate, Head of Human Resources at HSBC Singapore revealed that the bank has one woman in a senior position for every 14 women employed in an entry to midlevel position.

According to Brandon, gender diversity forms a key part of ensuring an inclusive, dynamic, and open culture in the workplace.

“What we’ve done at HSBC Singapore is to introduce a more flexible and hybrid way of working as part of our Future of Work approach. We also have Employee Resource Groups (ERG) that advocate various causes the bank supports. Our ERG champions the recruitment, development, advancement, and engagement of a gender-balanced workforce within HSBC. They come up with initiatives to support a genderequal environment,” Brandon said.

He also said that banks should share best practices with each other. “This is not a commercially sensitive topic and is something that the whole industry should be focused on improving.”

Dean Tong, head of Group Human Resources at UOB, said at the end of 2021 women comprised 55.6% of the newly hired employees across the group. In Singapore, its workforce comprised 61.5% of women, with 36.3% in senior roles.

Closing the gender gap

Dean believes that men and women bring different ideas, perspectives, and skill sets to the table. This setup drives innovative thinking and effective problem-solving for the organisation. To foster a diverse and in clusive workforce, it is imperative that organisations focus on building a workplace that values every individual and motivates them. According to Dean, this starts through their holistic talent recruitment and performance framework that measures and rewards all UOB employees based on their competencies and adherence to the company’s values.

“Through our leadership acceleration programme, we prepare our high-performing colleagues to take on executive roles in UOB by providing them with intensive learning experiences through crosscountry assignments, leadership coaching, and executive education. Many of our colleagues across both genders who participated in these programmes have gone on to become leaders at the bank and in their fields,” Dean explained.

Standard Chartered is also one of Singapore’s top banks that exceeded Deloitte’s forecast. In 2021, 48% of Standard Chartered’s overall hires were women, with 37% in senior roles. In the first half of 2022, 42% of overall hired employees were women, 37% in senior positions.

This is not a commercially sensitive topic and is something that the whole industry should be focused on improving

Market trends suggest that 2022 will see a continuation of demand for Wealth Management, Insurance, and IT roles in Singapore

“We have focused on providing opportunities for our people to upskill and reskill into areas [that are futureforward]. This targeted approach to skill-building is conducted with an eye on gender balance, such that more women can be reskilled into areas with growing demand,” Standard Chartered said.

This has led Standard Chartered to redeploy its people into the job roles of the future, such as Data Translators, Cyber Security Analysts, and Cloud Security Engineers.

“The programmes empower them to learn and practice in a safe environment, as well as gain greater exposure to the job, enabling our female colleagues to feel more ready to take the leap into roles traditionally dominated by men. For example, we launched a Universal Bankers and Cyber acceleration programme globally in 2021, which has supported 270 women in fulfilling their career aspirations in branch management, client relationship management and cyber roles,” Standard Chartered said.

The banks interviewed said that clear targets, reskilling and upskilling initiatives, and leadership programmes are just some of the few ways they are closing the gender gap in their workplace and industry.

Gender pay gap

Aside from the low penetration of women in senior roles, another gender-related concern that must be addressed is the pay gap between men and women employees.

HSBC’s Brandon suggested that companies should avoid asking candidates to provide salary information when hiring. This way, the pay would be based on the applicant’s competencies and skills.

Standard Chartered took a more proactive approach, like voluntarily and publicly disclosing their gender pay gap statistics for all their regional hubs through their annual Gender Pay Gap Report.

“Combined with our efforts to improve the female talent pipeline, as well as to upskill and reskill talent, we believe such initiatives will improve business ownership and accountability, thereby supporting more women in the workplace. This will help more qualified women reach senior roles and other traditionally male-dominated business areas, improve the overall balance in male/ female representation and, the current pay gap,” Standard Chartered said.

“We think what’s important is for us to acknowledge that there are biases around us and we need to call them out and find the best way to resolve the obstacles,” Brandon added.

Digital talents in demand

Standard Chartered foresees that demand in technology, innovation, digital banking, application support, and cloud engineering, as well as in consumer and private banking space, will continue.

“There was also demand across our global support functions, dominated by roles in Finance, Change Management, and Financial Crime Compliance Advisory. This year, we foresee demand to continue in the same areas as 2021,” said Standard Chartered’s Charlotte Thng, head of Human Resources, Singapore, Australia, and ASEAN Markets.

HSBC’s Brandon said: “Market trends suggest that 2022 will see a continuation of demand for Wealth Management, Insurance, and IT roles in Singapore. Initial forecasting suggests that recruitment demand in Singapore is set to increase by over 20% in 2022 compared to 2021.”

UOB said that they are currently building their talent pipeline in selected areas such as technology and data, compliance, wealth, and commercial banking.

“In April, we launched a Technology Development Programme designed to groom a future generation of technology specialists through a 12-month on-the-job and structured training programme, focusing on areas such as software development, cybersecurity, infrastructure and platforms. Under this programme, we plan to hire 100 talents including fresh graduates without prior technology experience or professionals with less than three years of work experience in the industry,” UOB’s Dean said.

These in-demand positions are open to candidates with equal opportunity, regardless of their gender, the banks assured.

Brandon Coate

Dean Tong

Charlotte Thng

What’s important is to acknowledge that there are biases around us and we need to call them out

Reskilling and upskilling initiatives, and leadership programmes are some ways that banks are closing the gender gap in the industry

2022 RANKING

1 BANK

DBS

Number of Employees 2022*

12,585

2

3

4

5 OVERSEA-CHINESE BANKING CORP

STANDARD CHARTERED BANK

UNITED OVERSEAS BANK

CITI SINGAPORE 11,461

10,000

9,000

8,500

6 HONG KONG AND SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION 3,242

7 BNP PARIBAS 2,200**

8 MAYBANK SINGAPORE 2,000

9 CREDIT AGRICOLE CORPORATE AND INVESTMENT BANK 1,900

10 BANK OF CHINA 955**

11 CIMB BANK 925

12

13

14 MIZUHO BANK

RHB Singapore

STATE BANK OF INDIA >700

651

124**

Number of Employees 2021

12,000

10,032

10,000

9,000

8,500

3,300

2,200

2,000

955

1,237

>700

639

124

15

16 ICICI BANK

BANK OF INDIA

17 UCO BANK

TOTAL

*info derived from MAS website **info retained from 2021 rankings ***no data ****numbers did not include Credit Agricole 90** 90

77** 77

42** 42

64,452 60,896****

2021 RANKING CEO OR COUNTRY HEAD

1 Shee Tse Koon

2

3

4

5

6

7

8 Helen Wong

Patrick Lee

Wee Ee Cheong

Amol Gupte

Kee Joo Wong

Joris Maria A. Dierckx*

Dr. John Lee

10 Jean-Pierre Michalowski

11

9 Cheng Jun*

Victor Lee

12

13 Guan Yeow Kwang*

Danny Quah

14 Jamneshwar Pamidimukkala*

15

16 Sachin Kumar*

Geetha Nagarajan*

17 Gourab Chatterjee*

CASE STUDY: STANDARD CHARTERED Standard Chartered Hong Kong sees metaverse as future of banking

Banks can make use of AR/VR to offer more personalised services from the safety of clients’ homes.

SCB Hong Kong is the first bank to acquire virtual land at The Sandbox’s Mega City (Photo: A still from SCB’s announcement video)

Could the next frontier of banking services lie in the metaverse? For Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) Hong Kong, it just might be. The bank, through its investment arm, SC Ventures, recently purchased virtual land in The Sandbox—a blockchain-based virtual world aiming to build a vast metaverse that allows users to create and monetise their own distinct virtual worlds and unique video game experiences.

In particular, Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong bought a piece of land in the Mega City district, touted as a culture hub based on and inspired by Hong Kong talents.

This makes Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong the first bank to acquire virtual land or property at The Sandbox’s Mega City.

“The metaverse is all about the next phase in the internet’s evolution, bringing new possibilities and unique experiences through the use of immersive technologies,” Alex Manson, head of SC Ventures by Standard Chartered, told Asian Banking & Finance. “Our involvement in the metaverse allows us to reimagine our relationship with existing and potential clients.”

“We chose The Sandbox as they are one of the leaders in this space and have impressed us both with their vision and their execution,” Standard Chartered’s Manson said. “The idea of being an anchor in a virtual community focused on Hong Kong partners excites us, as we are historically one of the note-issuing banks and an anchor in the physical Hong Kong community.”

In particular, SCBHK said that it plans to use the space to explore co-creation opportunities in the metaverse, with the goal of experimenting and building new experiences for clients, as well as bringing the local sports and art communities into the metaverse.

Alex Manson

Michael Abbott

Jess Murray

In the metaverse, banks could deliver advice and build relationships at a time when banking has become commoditised What is Metaverse?

If your mind is beset with visions of a 360-degree full virtual reality living akin to that seen in the sci-fi film Ready Player One when thinking of metaverse, you are not exactly that far off. The metaverse aims for a world in which its users can participate in or even inhabit “a persistent shared experience that spans the spectrum of our real-world to a fully virtual world and in between,” as defined by the professional services company, Accenture.

For banks, this provides the opportunity to deliver even more personalised banking journeys without clients having to leave the safety of their homes.

Standard Chartered has yet to disclose its exact plans for its newly bought virtual land. But it is likely that the bank will explore offering personalised banking services through virtual reality and augmented reality.

“In the metaverse, banks could deliver advice and build relationships at a time when banking has become commoditised and drained of emotional salience. The metaverse could put humanity back into the conversation in ways that would simply not be possible in app alerts or text messages,” Accenture’s senior managing director and global banking lead Michael Abbott, and managing director & banking & capital markets lead for North America Jess Murray wrote in a recent report.

Ignoring the metaverse is a big opportunity missed for banks: Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have both estimated that the metaverse economy could be worth as much as $8t by 2030.

Other opportunities arising from the metaverse include the creation of new payments rails that power transactions in the virtual world, and the invention of new products and services–for example securing, insuring, and lending against digital assets like digital currencies.

SECTOR REPORT: CARDS & PAYMENTS Alternative payment methods dominate Asia as credit card use dwindles

BNPL may not be the plastic killer everyone touts it to be, but it’s attracting underserved customers.

BNPL transaction value is expected to double its share to US$78b by 2025

Credit card companies have room to sweat. Despite its current status as the socalled fintech disruptor, buy now, pay later (BNPL) alone is unlikely to overtake credit card use over the next few years. But neither are credit card firms off the hook, with more consumers in the Asia Pacific region expected to ditch the plastic in favour of other alternative credit payment options.

Digital wallets now completely dominate the e-commerce space in APAC, making up 68.5% of the segment’s transaction value in APAC compared to only 12.8% of the share of credit and charge cards, according to data from financial technology service provider FIS’ 2022 edition of the Global Payments Report. Card payments’ share is expected to further decline to 11% by 2025, whilst e-wallets are projected to expand to 72% of the total transaction value in three years.

Cash is gradually declining. The use of cash continues to go down year on year

BNPL currently makes up barely 1% of the total e-commerce transaction value in the region. But the service has the potential to attract consumers seeking to ditch the plastic or have trouble accessing a credit card, said Kanv Pandit, group managing director and head of sales, Asia Pacific, for FIS.

“There has been a latent demand for an alternative to credit cards,” Pandit told Asian Banking & Finance in an interview, adding that there are two primary reasons driving BNPL. “Number one, credit cards address a very narrow segment of the addressable market, like customers who were seeking financing options. The second is customers are seeking flexibility and simplicity.”

Pandit notes that simplicity is a big reason why BNPL has become attractive, as it is easier for consumers to sign up at point of purchase and get their financing needs using this service as compared to signing up for a credit card.

This ease-of-use element in payments extends not just for the consumers, but also for the merchants.

“It’s enabling sales growth, enabling higher conversion rates for purchase at checkout, and production in otherwise abandoned online shopping carts,” Pandit said.

“Smaller merchants have always traditionally been very cash-heavy, [but] they have had to adopt digital payments. They’ve seen the use case, the simplicity, and the safety that comes with the use of digital payments. We expect this trend to continue,” Pandit said.

Whilst still occupying a smaller fraction of the market, BNPL transaction value is expected to double its share to 1.8% by 2025, or US$78b of the e-commerce market to become one of the leading alternative payment methods outside of mobile wallets and card payments, FIS’ study found.

Mobile wallets as clear victors

Beyond BNPL and cards, a third party is slated to become the new normal for payments: mobile wallets. E-wallets now dominate both the transaction values of e-commerce and POS payments in Asia, although the latter was heavily driven by China’s e-wallet use. The Red Dragon made up 54% of the total POS transaction value in APAC, driven by QR code payments linked to the dominant mobile wallets, Alipay and WeChat Pay.

Outside of China, mobile wallet use is on the rise but not yet quite as dominant. In Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia, for example, cash on delivery continues to be the standard for e-commerce transactions, according to Pandit.

“But preferences are starting to change. There is greater choice and availability of e-wallets and the ease of purchase, that’s slowly being realised by customers who start to adopt it,” Pandit said. “Then you have markets like the Philippines,

Simplicity is a big reason why BNPL has become attractive to customers

where again, because of the effort and the push led by fintech, like GCash, we’re seeing a surge in the use of digital wallets.”

FIS is also seeing very encouraging digital wallet growth in other Asian countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore—a trend that’s projected to continue to grow through 2025, Pandit added.

“APAC really is a very vibrant market on the adoption of alternative payment methods and digital wallets. Truly, it’s been remarkable. And we’re forecasting that to continue to be the case for the next two to three years,” he said.

Other alternative forms of payments expected to rise include real-time payments, whose share of transactions of POS payments is poised to grow in the coming years. Thanks to policy and regulator support in Asian markets.

“We’ve got 13 countries across APAC that either have quality, wellestablished use, or are studying the growing use, of real-time payment schemes,” Pandit said.

Today, China and India already top the world in terms of daily real-time payment transactions globally. India in particular edged past China in this regard with over 70 million real-time payments made daily, almost double that of China’s 43 million daily real-time payment transactions, according to FIS’ data.

Out with the old, in with the new

But what about the mode of payment that started it all: cash?

“Cash is gradually declining. As far as a percentage of payment methods, the use of cash continues to go down year on year,” Pandit said, adding that the portion of cash used as a percentage of point of sale transaction value is projected to fall from 16% in 2021 to a mere at 8% by 2025.

“But we’re not expecting the absolute death of cash anytime soon. There is that one final element: the fact that digital electronic payments are not going to be always available to everyone in the society. So governments still have to ensure that there is access to financial services. Cash serves that purpose.”

ATM networks will continue to be a relevant channel for years to come even in mature digital payments markets such as Japan, Pandit added.

The future: CBDCs, Cloud

Of emerging possible modes of payment, Pandit expressed excitement for the development of central bank digital currencies (CBDC), which according to him, will impact the trajectory of payments as we know it.

Pandit said that we would likely see CBDC used in use cases for the efficient transfer of money or money movement on a cross border level, especially when it comes down to institutional settlement.

Already, central banks in China, Singapore, and India have taken a leading role in actively investigating the use of CBDC, or are actually working with the industry to test pilots on how CBDC can be used in financial transactions.

Regulation of currency moving digitally will also be better under CBDC-use. “That addresses problems of tax evasion that in turn addresses problems for money laundering, which even today is very difficult for regulators to fix,” Pandit said.

The FIS expert added that it will help drive down the cost per industry of payments and take away inefficiencies.

Cloud is expected to also play a core role not just in payments but in mobile banking in general, with its potential to reduce costs whilst making digital payments faster and future-proof.

“Banks have operated on legacy cores that have been built over many, many decades, and these are very monolithic systems. They are built on legacy technologies and using legacy languages, which is very difficult to support today, because those skill sets are disappearing,” Pandit said.

“So they can’t support emerging trends, technologies, and agility. They can’t support, for instance, many of the innovations that we spoke about [like] BNPL and digital wallets. Banks have to put in a lot of effort to get those products out,’ the FIS expert added.

Seeing that banks are interested in moving to lighter core systems, FIS, for their part, teamed up with Microsoft to offer their FIS Modern Banking Platform on the Microsoft Azure Banking platform, to help banks design, build, and employ new banking products and services that are cloud-native–especially for firms who are still bogged down by legacy systems.

APAC is a vibrant market on the adoption of alternative payment methods and digital wallets

Kanv Pandit, Group Managing Director and Head of Sales, Asia Pacific, FIS (Photo courtesy of www.frontier-enterprise.com/author/kanv-pandit/)

Public expectations for net-zero financing intensifies

Thailand plays catch up with global green finance goals

Banks are calling for legislators to impose carbon tax, a quota on corporations, and a common taxonomy of ESG financing goals.

Risks are rising as public expectations for net-zero financing intensifies, and most Southeast Asian banking markets are still playing catch up to meet the growing demands.

Thailand is no exception despite steady progress in this area. As early as 2014, Thailand has made public its intention for more green energy in order to address climate change, with reduction targets eventually set at 20% by 2030. In 2021, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha pledged to achieve net-zero goals by 2065. More recently, the government is considering a draft of the new National Plan for Economic and Social Development through 2027.

But according to climate experts and scientists, Thailand’s emissions reduction targets remain critically insufficient. The Climate Action Tracker (CAT)–formed by Berlinbased Climate Analytics, non-profit NewClimate Institute, and the think tank Institute for Essential Services Reform–said that Thailand’s goals

Poonsit Wongthawatchai

One of the key hurdles is that Thailand still has no legislation on emissions

does not take into account postCOVID economic trends.

The lack of clear mitigation policies, as well as ongoing structural impediments, make it hard for banks across ASEAN markets and especially in Thailand to make surefire steps to decarbonise finance, local bank executives told Asian Banking & Finance.

“One of the key hurdles for Thailand is that, if you just look from an environmental perspective to address [the] climate change issue, Thailand still has no legislation on carbon emission or greenhouse gas emission,” noted Poonsit Wongthawatchai, executive vice president and head of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) division at Bank of Ayudhya (Krungsri). “The government has not set a quota allowance for greenhouse gas emission. Thailand still has a voluntary system.”

Initiatives are currently on a voluntary basis, such as the T-VER (Thailand Voluntary Emission Reduction Program) by the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization (TGO), which encourages the voluntary reduction of greenhouse gases.

Jason Lee, sustainability lead at CIMB Thai, noted that whilst the government has formed committees and signed agreements pushing ESG initiatives, there is a need to strengthen currently existing sustainability regulations.

“Current policies need to be ramped-up or expanded, more resources mobilised, and new policy instruments introduced,” Lee said.

For example, Lee said that stakeholders should look at whether emissions pricing is in place or if existing emissions pricing is too low; whether support for green investments is insufficient when compared with the scale of decarbonisation efforts required; and whether pollution activities are insufficiently regulated.

Krungsri’s Wongthawatchai also highlighted the need to impose a carbon tax and a set quota on corporations to better drive adoption of sustainable activities in the country, banking included.

Structural impediments

But even with the right legislation, countries could still find it challenging to push for net zero–especially when energy demand is involved. This includes inadequate grid capacity in terms of renewable energy development, Lee said.

“Policies to create positive effects and the development of renewable energy sources as VAT rebates, fiscal subsidies, tax incentives for innovation, price controls, land allocation policies, demand commitments and compulsory allocation, can all be impeded by limited grid capacity,” Lee said.

In some cases, the lack of grid connections could lead to renewable energy produced going to waste, Lee warned. Meanwhile, many countries still heavily rely on fossil fuels.

Another structural impediment is the lack of a common set of standards and definitions on ESG financing and banking.

We need the taxonomy in terms of the ESG financing activity, transaction, and qualification

Thailand’s reduction targets remain critically insufficient

“One thing is really clear: we need the taxonomy in terms of the ESG financing activity, transaction, and qualification,” Krungsri’s Wongthawatchai said. “This is something that we actually need for us to have a common set of standards and definitions.”

Transitioning to green finance

Wongthawatchai believes that transitioning finance also offers banks significant financial and business opportunities going forward. “There will be a financing gap for those industries that want to transform, to restructure their businesses from brown to green,” he explained.

Thailand’s car manufacturing industry, for example, is rife for a shake-up. In fact, the electric vehicle or EV production industry in Thailand has expressed interest in accessing more green loans, according to Wongthawatchai. This is in line with the government’s own goal, which is that 30% of all cars produced in Thailand will be electric vehicles by 2030.

“This is also a good idea for Thailand’s future, as car manufacturing industry is one of the key industries of Thailand. We are an auto manufacturing hub, and car manufacturers from Japan, the United States, and Europe all come here in Thailand. The car manufacturing industry has contributed significantly to our export income for the past two or three decades,” Wongthawatchai said.

“That’s also a key milestone that will help further drive automobile manufacturing in Thailand and the production and distribution of sales of electric vehicles going forward,” the Krungsri expert added.

Banks take the lead

Taxonomy or none, banks in Thailand are already moving forward with their own ESG-related financing services in order to meet the rising demand from companies and individuals to access financial products and services that have positive environmental and social impacts.

Bank of Ayudhya has been making waves in this field since 2018, when the market technically first kicked off, when the country issued its first sustainability-linked bond and eventually loan–and the bank actually played a role in this issuance. It is also reportedly the first Thai bank to develop an ESG council. They also have adopted a carbon emissions reduction plan, and an ESG risk management policy that was just recently approved by its board this 2022.

Today, Bank of Ayudhya has a 12 billion baht lending portfolio that they are looking to grow, Wongthawatchai shared.

Shifting to green products

Outside of loans, wealth management customers have a clear shift of preference for green and sustainable products, Wongthawatchai observed.

“Right now, about one-third of our wealth management business are actually in what we call the impact investment or ESG qualified investment. This segment is quite sophisticated in terms of their investment analysis and decision making process. I believe they also see a very clear correlation in terms of their investment returns correlated to the ESG score of a specific company or a specific industry,” he noted.

CIMB Thailand aligns with its parent company CIMB Group’s sustainability commitments, such as setting Net-Zero targets, phasing out from the coal sector by 2040, having “No Deforestation, No Peat and No Exploitation (NDPE)” commitments, upholding human rights, and mobilizing over US$6.7b (RM30b) towards sustainable finance by 2024.

“This includes wholesale and corporate financing, bonds and capital raising, wealth products, and products that enable inclusion such as sustainable home financing and other products catered for low income groups” Lee said.

Banks in Thailand are already moving forward with their own ESG-financing services