Singapore may be gaining an edge over Hong Kong in the commodities sector as banks seek to beef up their teams.

Lehman Brothers, for example, uses Singapore as a centre for regional commodities trading, while UBS moved Stuart Fox, its head of commodities for Asia-Pacific, from Hong Kong to Singapore earlier this month.

Many financial institutions are expanding their commodities headcount in Singapore because of its geographical location and good regulatory infrastructure, says Tim Hird, managing director of recruiters Robert Half. “The robust hiring pace is expected to continue as demand for food, energy and raw materials continues to rise.”

Pan Zaixian, manager financial services at Robert Walters, says Singapore is growing in importance for middle and back-office roles, such as post-trading, processing and administration. However, some high-end functions, including computation of risk parameters, are predominantly still done in London and other foreign cities.

But Hong Kong recruiters think their city stacks up well compared to Singapore and is still attracting top traders. They point to Mark Greenleaf, appointed in April as Calyon's regional head of commodities for Asia, being based in Hong Kong.

“Hong Kong has not lost its drive to hire. Many candidates from overseas are looking to relocate here and Asia is being seen as a more positive area for growth,” says James Carss, director in the banking and financial services group at Hudson.

Singapore's efforts to position itself as an international trading hub have not been simply luck of the draw. Its Global Trader Programme, which confers a concessionary tax rate of up to 10% on offshore trading income in approved commodities, was expanded to include non-physical products (eg, forward-freight agreements) three years ago.