“We don’t see any trend of firms hiring non-locals in Taiwan as the market is hugely very domestic,” Lee told FSA.
Within private banking, English language is usually not even a requirement for hiring because most of the clients that the local banks are handling are Chinese speakers.
In addition, both internal and external reporting across different functions are all done in Chinese.
“In general, you just have to speak Chinese and have a local licence [to be hired].” For senior roles, a candidate should have an existing client base in order to be recruited by a competing firm, he added.
Obtaining a degree abroad or having international exposure is also not a pre-requisite for hiring. “That just makes their profile better, but it really doesn’t mean they could interact [better] with local clients.”
The exception is if a local bank has operations offshore and the employee is expected to use English with colleagues in other markets.
The Taiwanese high-net-worth (HNW) segment remains small — less than half the number of their counterparts in Hong Kong and Singapore, according to Knight Frank’s 2017 wealth report.
HNW population (2016)
|
|
Hong Kong |
Taiwan |
Singapore |
|
Millionaires ($1m+) |
227,900 |
103,100 |
217,300 |
|
Multi-millionaires ($10m+) |
10,180 |
3,680 |
7,000 |
|
UHNWIs ($30m+) |
4,080 |
1,380 |
2,500 |
|
Centa-millionaires ($100m+) |
510 |
267 |
292 |
|
Billionaires ($1bn+) |
51 |
29 |
23 |
|
Total |
242,721 |
108,456 |
227,115 |
Source: Knight Frank
Asset management
Asset management firms also prefer to hire locals over foreign candidates.
“It is very unlikely that firms hire candidates with no prior experience in Taiwan and have no Chinese language skills,” Lee said.
But unlike private banks, more fund houses are requiring English skills, he noted.
For example, in investment management roles, firms that have exposure offshore require employees to know English as they are required to communicate on a daily basis with colleagues abroad or with the companies they invest in.
In Taiwan, the number and size of funds that invest offshore are bigger than those that invest locally. There were 996 offshore funds with assets of around $108.4bn as of the end of June, while there were 766 onshore funds with assets of around $73.25bn, according to data from Taiwan’s Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association.
Salary gap
Professionals in private banking and asset management who are working in Hong Kong and Singapore have significantly higher salaries than their Taiwan counterparts, Lee said.
For example, within the asset management space, professionals in Hong Kong may earn 2.5-3 times more than in Taiwan, according to Lee.
The salary gap is even higher in the private banking space. Hong Kong salaries are 3-3.5 times more than in Taiwan.
When compared to Singapore, front office private banking and wealth management professionals in Hong Kong are paid more, according to Hays’ 2017 salary survey, as reported.
