Banks may be busy slashing staff in London and New York, but Asia looks set to avoid the worst of the cutbacks.

Merrill Lynch, which last week announced an additional 3,000 redundancies globally, does not plan to make significant reductions in Hong Kong and Singapore, according to a spokeswoman.

“While there may be some minor job losses in this region, overall Asia is still a growth market for us. Wealth management and investment banking are areas where we are looking to expand,” she says. Despite the firm suffering a US$2bn first quarter loss, its Asian investment banking revenues have remained buoyant so far this year.

Continuing Asian optimism

Merrill Lynch’s positive plans for Hong Kong and Singapore appear to reflect a broader employment market trend of Asian optimism versus lay-offs in London and New York.

Recruiters agree that banks are not planning mass redundancies in Asia, despite their best money-saving efforts – Citigroup, for example, plans to eliminate 9,000 jobs in the next 12 months, according to Bloomberg.

Bulge-bracket investment banks are taking a 'wait and see' approach to hiring in Singapore, says Angela Kuek, manager for banking and financial services at search firm Hudson.

Short-term hiring freezes in Singapore

“We aren’t seeing a jobs recession as in other parts of the world, and we’ve had more enquiries in the last two months from people outside Asia wanting to work here,” she reports. “But informally some investment banks have imposed short-term hiring freezes in Singapore and have added more layers of approval to recruitment.”

Commercial banks, such as Standard Chartered and HSBC, could win the war for talent this year if investment banks are too cautious with their hiring, says Kuek. “The Australian banks – ANZ, Macquarie and NAB – are also expanding in Singapore and they could have the pick of the top people if the investment banks are holding off.”

Large-scale job losses are also unlikely in Hong Kong, adds James Carss, a Hudson director. “We’ve seen no redundancies here, no restructuring. What has changed is that banks are looking for more senior people at VP level and above, rather than analysts or associates.”