Qualified accountants are creeping into a more diverse and interesting range of roles within banks in Asia these days, and the functions which require their skills are enjoying a steady flow of vacancies. But banks still have demanding recruitment requirements.

Accountants can be found not just in core finance positions, but also in operations and project management jobs. There is a growing trend for them to add MBAs and CFAs to their accountancy qualifications in order to further their careers within the middle and back offices of large banks in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Banks generally want to hire accountants for product-driven roles, such as internal audit, product control, and financial planning and analysis, says Priscilla Slade, senior consultant, banking and financial services, Ambition Singapore. “In these positions, you often need to deal with front-office traders, and understand how products affect the business,” she adds.

Slade says qualified accountants can pick up project management jobs, but only if they have extra expertise other than just finance. “The ideal candidate understands the balance sheet – how accounting interacts with the profitability of the bank. You don’t need technical programming skills, but a sound general knowledge of banking IT is important,” she explains.

In product control, the usual career path is to move straight from a financial control role in a bank, having already worked at a Big Four accountancy firm. High recruitment levels in this function also mean banks are importing talent from overseas countries, in particular the UK.

Restrictions

However, as jobs become more product-specific, qualified accountants are increasingly limited to working in one type of bank. For example, a candidate currently working at an investment bank would look to move to another i-bank. The same applies in retail and private banking.

“During the GFC, banks retained a skeleton staff, but now they need experts to build their businesses in Asia. They want people who can hit the ground running and don’t need training. Ninety per cent of the time, firms are less flexible with recruitment than they were before the crisis,” says Slade.

So where does this leave candidates from the Big Four who want to break into banking? Realistically, only those who have audited banks will be considered, which leaves a small Big Four talent pool for banks to target in Asia, according to several HR people and headhunters.

“Banks are therefore poaching from each other and also holding out, not ready to take a risk on candidates. I’ve had a few roles open since early this year,” comments one recruiter who asked not to be named.

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