Headhunters in Hong Kong say the lay-offs announced in the past few months in Asia’s banking industry are just the beginning and expect there will be far worse to come, predicting the total size of the industry in the region could shrink by more than 20 per cent.
At the end of last year Société Générale announced it was laying off almost 1,600 staff – 13 per cent of the French bank’s global headcount. Of that total, a mere 100 were leaving SocGen’s Asian corporate and investment banking arm.
For a time, it seemed Asia would escape the sweeping job cuts happening elsewhere. But confirmation this week that Bank of America Merrill Lynchwas laying off a fifth of its Asian managing directors – steep by investment banking standards, where cuts of 3-4 per cent are normal – suggests those hopes are misplaced.