Business

Saturday July 28, 2012

Options aplenty soon for banking and finance talents abroad


KUALA LUMPUR: Employees in the financial sector can be more mobile in their job pursuits in the coming years, going beyond the domestic banking industry by riding on the expansion of banks around the Asean region.

Institute of Bankers Malaysia chief executive Tay Kay Luan said options would increasingly present themselves for banking and finance talents to venture outside Malaysia.

“There is the choice of (seeing) global horizons because big banks are expanding beyond the Malaysian shores,” he said at the 16th Malaysian Banking Summit, noting that multinational banks were already undertaking such moves.

“This is a great opportunity for employees to acquire new skills. It is a matter of whether they want to get out of their comfort zones and move into uncharted territory of managing diversity and different cultures,” he said of the employees.

“The difference between today and back then is that the employees now have more career choices and for those who are not so young they could still have a career change,” he said. “We are facing a shortage of employees as it is an employees' market now.”

To this, Asian Institute of Finance chief operating officer Ranjit Singh echoed similar views.

“We cannot just look at empowering our employees in the local environment. It has got to go beyond that and take into consideration what is going on around the world,” he said.

“Come 2015, there will be a number of initiatives driven by Asean which means our employees will have more mobility to work in other parts of Asia,” he said, adding that talents needed to also have mobile or versatile skills in order to work in other jurisdictions.

Bernama added that Talent Corp (M) Bhd chief executive Johan Mahmood Merican said the on-going financial crisis in Europe had not deterred Malaysian graduates from pursuing a career in the local banking and finance industry.

He said the industry remained attractive and “sexy” for local graduates despite the meltdowns, as it had shown its resilience against the financial systems in the West.

“The industry is getting much more attractive, with Malaysia leading the global Islamic finance market, while placing a strong foothold in the regional banking industry through aggressive expansion exercise,” he added.

Johan also said that the strong banking and financial framework by Bank Negara and the Securities Commission had ensured the stability of the industry, thus restoring the confidence of Malaysians working abroad.

“They went abroad due to several reasons. But, at this time where the condition in Europe is not so strong, we are having not only a growing Asia but also Malaysian banks which are transforming as organisations.”

Talent Corp is currently doing a programme to bring Malaysian professionals working overseas back home and have so far welcomed back more than 1,000 professionals.

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