BANK RANKINGS: HONG KONG Job losses loom in Hong Kong banks as focus turns to productivity

Many senior roles were laid off, and banks also set informal hiring freezes, experts said.

employed a slightly higher number of people by the end of 2022 compared to the previous year.

OCBC Wing Hang added over 400 new people to its Hong Kong team; DBS Hong Kong’s total employee count is over 50 people higher than in 2021; and Dah Sing Bank saw numbers rise by over 30 people.

Tai Sang Bank, the smallest bank in the rankings, now employs 38 people versus the 36 employees in 2021. Tai Sang Bank operates out of a single branch at Des Voeux Road Central and does not offer any online banking or ATM services.

Runners-up

Bankers seeking a job in Hong Kong should brace themselves for obstacles as financial institutions slowed investment for human resources.

The year of 2022 saw hiring slow and roles get cut, although the overall numbers did not register any dramatic falls. Data gathered by Asian Banking & Finance revealed that there are a total of approximately 78,576 individuals working across 17 banks in the city as of end-2022. This is marginally lower when compared to combined total headcounts of the 17 banks in end-2021, when there were 79,710 people employed by the banks.

HSBC, Bank of China (Hong Kong), and Hang Seng Bank remain the three largest banks in Hong Kong in terms of the number of people employed. HSBC and Hang Seng Bank had slightly lower headcounts compared to the past year. Based on the numbers, HSBC cut another 500 jobs in Hong Kong; whilst Hang Seng Bank’s headcount fell by 600 people.

Speaking to Asian Banking & Finance, a representative from Hang

Seng bank, which is celebrating its 90th year anniversary in 2023, shared that the bank is focusing on promoting its talent development priorities and equipping its workforce with future-oriented skills.

“People are our most important asset. We continue to invest in developing our colleagues through structured programmes and equip them with future-skills to support their growth. We maintain an agile approach to people resources management to meet business needs and build talent pipelines,” the representative said in a statement via e-mail correspondence.

“One of the examples is recruitment through graduate and Management Trainee recruitment programmes. We also focus on promoting our talent development priorities, especially for local talents, to cultivate young talents to become banking professionals,” the representative added.

Bank of China (Hong Kong), meanwhile, employed 12,190 staff as of end-2022.

OCBC Wing Hang Bank, DBS

Hong Kong, and Dah Sing Bank all

The rest of the banks saw their numbers fall or remain the same. The Bank of East Asia, Limited saw their headcount fall below 5,000 people to 4,883. Chong Hing Bank roughly employed the same number of people by end-2022 compared to a year earlier, but moved up two spots in the rankings of largest banks by employee count as both Shanghai Commercial Bank and CMB Wing Lung Bank cut numbers in 2022. Shanghai Commercial Bank employs 200 people less as of end-2022, and CMB Wing Lung Bank 100 people less.

Of the five banks in the Hong Kong Bank Rankings with the largest staff employed in the city, Standard Chartered Bank was the only one who did not disclose their numbers as of press time. Media reports in early June alleged that the bank has begun laying off employees across Singapore, London, and Hong Kong as part of an existing plan to cut costs by more than $1b in 2024, with the number of jobs cut possibly exceeding 100.

Hiring freezes

Hiring experts revealed to Asian Banking & Finance that there is an informal hiring freeze and some layoffs as Hong Kong banks focus on maximizing productivity rather than hiring new employees.

“Over the last nine months, it’s definitely slowed down. And then over three months [in 2023], it slowed even further, especially in the wake of happenings in the global investment banking market,” said John Mullally, Robert Walters’ managing director for Hong Kong and South China.

Investment banking layoffs have hit the shores of Hong Kong, although not as much as New York and London. Mullally, in particular, noticed an amount of layoffs at the senior level positions.

“What was seen during the global financial crisis were huge swathes of bankers losing their jobs. We are definitely seeing some layoffs, especially at the senior levels, which are more visible, more noticeable,” Mullally said, adding that whilst there are no “formal” hiring freeze announcements, there was definitely an “informal hiring freeze [or] less hiring activity in general.”

Instead of hiring, banks are focused on maximizing the productivity of their workforce.

Olga Yung, managing director at Michael Page Hong Kong, said that the majority of companies and hiring managers have as their key priority the improvement of cost efficiency and productivity in 2023.

“This is a common theme across a variety of sell side players regardless of size,” Yung told Asian Banking & Finance via exclusive correspondence.

RMs, tech roles still in demand

Whilst hiring has slowed down due to overall weak market sentiment and negative news