AGENDA
MARKET TRENDS
AREAS OF SPECIALISM
FINANCIAL CRIME MARKET UPDATE
• Areas of specialism
• Market Trends
• Salary Survey
• AML
• Sanctions
• Know Your Customer
• Investigation
• Financial Crime Audit
• Anti-Bribery Corruption
• Bonus Reports
• Eximius sponsored Financial Crime BAML event
eximius financial
We currently partner with top tier investment, corporate and private banks as well as consultancies who have a focus within financial crime and across the APAC region.
Areas of focus in financial crime are being driven by evolving regulatory requirements with increased levels of hiring across Sanctions, Transaction Investigations and KYC.
• SANCTIONS VP to SVP is the level with highest demand as sanctions is a relatively new market in Asia. This has led banks to search for candidates outside of the APAC region and/or from other sectors outside of financial services. To counter the high demand for such a specialist skillset, banks like Citibank have offshored portions of this department to India in a bid to lower cost.
• TRANSACTION MONITORING/INVESTIGATION Manager/AVP level continues to be the level in highest demand. A number of our clients have shown high levels of interest in investigators currently working in banking and regulatory bodies. At this level of expertise, a number of short term moves are becoming the norm for candidates in Hong Kong causing discussion around attraction and importantly retention of talent.
• KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER Manager/AVP to VP is the level with highest demand. However, in recent months demand across Hong Kong has decreased with a growing trend of KYC teams moving to offshore locations. For example, last month JP Morgan relocated a part of their private banking KYC/account opening function from Hong Kong to Singapore.
COMPETITIVE TIMES Firms are facing huge demands in the above areas compounded by unusually high turnover rates. In the first quarter of 2016, it’s worth noting that a top tier bank witnessed 3 resignations in their FCC team, before bonuses were announced. However, there is the shift in the mentality of candidates with 3+ year’s industry experience as they are becoming aware of the negative effects in changing employers multiple times over a short period of time.
SALARY SURVEY FINANCIAL CRIME COMPLIANCE 2016
FCC
A/Assoc
AVP
VP
D
MD
Years of Experience
1>5
5>8
8>14
14>20
20+
Local & Regional CIB
240,000<480,000
480,000<700,000
700,000<960,000
960,000<1,500,000
1,500,000+
Global Bank
240,000<540,000
540,000<780,000
780,000<1,300,000
1,300,000<1,850,000
1,850,000+
eximius financial
POWER SHIFT This leads us to the topic of power shift as mentioned by Maggie Qiu, Regional Head of Sanctions - Standard Chartered Bank in an article published on “A closer look at winning the anti-money laundering talent.”
The market has witnessed power shifting from banks to the hands of senior AML officers who are increasingly responsible to promote ethical business activities which again emphasize the need to retain the right talent. We believe a strong strategy around rewarding/empowering top performers and providing effective on the job AML specific training is a key to retain high performers in this market. For example, BNP Paribas run their own academy training in the form of internships, seminars and a graduate compliance program to train, develop and retain employees.
AMLO ORDINANCE AND FATF One of the key regulatory requirements driving AML hiring in Hong Kong is the AMLO ordinance and upcoming FATF assessment in 2018/2019. Recently, the HKAB guidance has gained importance in Hong Kong which specifically refers to the fact that HKMA expects the banks to give full consideration to the adoption of practice of HKAB guidance. While financial crime continues to be hot, Eximius has observed that firms have been more strategic and cautious with hiring plans over the past six months. On top of this we expect that AML/Financial Crime will continue to be buoyant, especially for banks that lack sufficient AML control in international trade, KYC, transaction monitoring and sanctions.
OPPORTUNITY The compliance sector in general continues to be fiercely competitive when looking at the retention and attraction of talent. We are seeing a number of our clients take internal actions to retain top performers at the Director/VP level as this is where majority of external demand is focused. This apparent shortage of skillsets is forcing businesses to look outside of Hong Kong, although preference is for locally trained and/or Asia based employees. Also banks are being creative by looking for talent outside of compliance with transferable skills and a good understanding of the front to back operations of the firm.
eximius financial
StatusQuo 32%
Increased31%
5-10%Increase
23%
1-5% Increase
62%
>10%increase
15%
Decreased37%
BONUS TRENDS
BONUS REPORT - HONG KONG 2016
The Eximius Risk, Compliance and Audit teams during Q1 of months of 2016 have surveyed 172 professionals in Hong Kong. Our goal was to understand how financial services firms are coping with increasing costs of human capital across the compliance functions. The overriding good news is that 98% of the professionals surveyed did achieve a bonus.
The common theme of an increased bonus pool was in conjunction with a decreased salary pool. Eximius paid attention to this strategy in 2015 and have certainly noted it in 2016. If 2015 was more focused on salary increment, 2016 has seen the emphasis shift towards end of year bonuses.
Hong Kong professionals seem to have realigned expectations. Of those surveyed we asked “how do you feel about your bonus and increment”? The response was that 60% stated the following comments: “as expected” and “no surprises”. Of the survey we executed this year only 12% achieved a bonus higher than 25% of annual basic salary.
Initially HSBC announced no salary increments for employees but as we moved into 2016, this announcement was subsequently retracted. Our survey found 60% achieving an increment on salary compared with 80% achieving a bonus.
One expert commented, where a financial crime division is split across BAU and change, it was the change staff that were pegged “critical” and even those that fell into the average category of appraisal, achieved a bonus. If you compare this to BAU staff (excluding management and high performers) who were not afforded such a luxury and pegged as replaceable.
Reshma Gope, Consultant
Reshma has been in the recruitment industry since graduation. She demonstrates her excellent industry network and market insights in Compliance, Investigations and Financial Crime Prevention sectors as well as professional follow-through at all of her clients and candidates. Email: [email protected] Direct dial: +852 3978 5034 hk.linkedin.com/in/reshmagope
This update was produced by the compliance team at Eximius Group, Hong Kong. If you would like a confidential discussion around these changes and hiring strategies please feel free to contact Reshma Gope on: +852 3978 5034 or [email protected]
Kate Reid, Associate Director
Kate has been in the industry for 11 years, seven of which in Hong Kong. Kate delivers talent services to both candidates and clients across the region, managing a team of specialist recruiters in risk, compliance and audit. Kate is also a steering com-mittee member of Women in Finance Asia, Mentor to the HKU MBA Women in Leadership club. She is the founder of Suits for Success Asia, in addition Kate leads corporate relations and fundraising for Project Share, a charity that works to bridge the social divide for less privileged youths in Hong Kong.
Email: [email protected] Direct dial: + 852 3978 3050 hk.linkedin.com/in/kateharper
AVERAGE BONUS PAYMENT FOR 2015 PERCENTAGE INCREASE IN BASIC SALARY
CONTACT US
eximius financial
2016 NETWORKING SERIES
WOMEN IN FINANCE ASIA Cordially invites you to participate in a networking event:
Date: Wednesday, 20 Aprial 2016 Time: 6:30pm-9pm
PANEL DISCUSSION ON “FINANCIAL CRIME: CAN THE GOOD GUYS WIN?”
Moderated By:Anna StephensonCEO, Inflection Point Solutions Ltd
It seems like financial crime is in the newspaper headlines every week, from Ponzi schemes to money laundering, from cyber-scams to bust-out fraud.
Our panel of crime-fighting specialists come from a variety of backgrounds and bring different perspectives to the never-ending battle against the bad guys.
Join to discuss: • How financial crimes are morphing as technology
advances• Who commits financial crimes and why • What companies and governments are doing to
detect and prevent financial crimes• Secrets of life as an undercover cop
Sponsored by:
Hosted by:
SPECIAL GUEST PANELISTS Russell HardingRegional Head of Financial CrimeUBS
Russell spent 20 years with the HK police force putting money launderers in prison, and now the last 18 months with UBS keeping people out of prison for money laundering.
Susan JenkinsRegional Head of Employee RelationsBank of America, Merrill Lynch
Susan brings the HR perspective to out panel, focusing on criminal motivation, employee crime prevention, whistle-blowing etc. Her significant experience in all aspects of HR across Europe, the Middle East and Asia give her unique insights into employee- related crime.
Bill MajcherPresidentEMIDR Ltd
Bill has actually been a money launderer for a Colombian cocaine cartel, during his career as a covert operative for the RCMP. He also trained covert operators on how to defeat banks’ AML controls. He now specialises in military grade cyber-security and unconventional solutions.
Adelene WeeGroup Head -Fraud Prevention & Integrity RiskHill & Associates
As a senior executive at a risk mitigation consulting company, Adelene advises her clients on matters of integrity such as in the areas of compliance, fraud, bribery and corruption. She is the China expert on our panel and brings insights into the practical risk issues of corporate governance in Asia.
Venue: BAML, Hong Kong Office 55/F, Cheung Kong Center 2 Queen’s Road Central Hong Kong Cost: Free Registration: www.asifma.org/wifa/eventsIf you are unable to attend, you may send an alternative attendee. Contact: [email protected]