The overall Asian M&A jobs market has cooled down, but financial sector mergers are generating work for financial institutions group (FIG) bankers with expertise in the sector.

While fewer corporate IPOs are taking place, Asian insurance companies and commercial banks are still looking for new acquisitions, says Matthew Phillips, head of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ financial services and M&A practice in China. This is generating M&A work for the investment banks and professional services firms which underwrite and advise them, Phillips tells us.

New PwC figures show that Asia Pacific financial services mergers were up from US$64.5bn in 2006 to US$105.9bn in 2007. Looking ahead, 40% of the 281 senior financial services executives surveyed think their firms will undergo significant M&A activity in 2008.

Phillips says PwC is recruiting M&A advisers in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan primarily to serve the commercial banking and insurance industries. “The bulge-bracket investment banks are also hiring M&A people with five years' experience in these two sectors,” adds Phillips.

Amanda Lote, a director at Profile Search & Selection in Hong Kong, says banks can afford to be fussy in their hiring because there are fewer M&A jobs available and a high supply of local and foreign applicants. She comments: “M&A recruitment is static at the moment and it’s mainly only replacement of existing staff. There’s strategic, top-level hiring going on, but not the more junior roles.

“But at least in Asia we’re mostly not firing people as they are in America and Europe,” she adds.