BNP Paribas opens 1st Asia-Pacific campus to fill skills gap in banking

SINGAPORE — Financial services professionals in Singapore must develop more sophisticated competencies and be able to excel in multiple job functions if they are to succeed in the Republic’s fast-growing banking sector.

This is according to Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Managing Director Ravi Menon, who added that local banking professionals must also possess a deep regional knowledge and business network.

“The MAS wants to see more of our financial professionals in Singapore build up these three dimensions of expertise and there’s a strong ecosystem here to nurture this process,” he said at the opening of BNP Paribas’ S$24 million Asia Pacific Campus in Singapore yesterday.

The Government has flagged the financial sector as a key industry to develop a strong Singapore core and help generate more high-value jobs for locals. However, gaps remain in the capabilities of local talent, said Ms Theresa Ho, BNP Paribas’ head of human resources for South-east Asia yesterday.

“It’s in the area of risk and compliance. That’s why, as part of our programmes (at the new campus), we want to fill the gap. This is a gap we need to work on — to (have) more Singaporeans trained in this area,” she added.

BNP Paribas’ first campus in the Asia-Pacific region aims to train 3,200 regional employees a year. The bank plans to add 250 staff to its team in Singapore, which now has about 1,800 employees, 60 per cent of whom are Singaporeans, said Ms Ho.

The campus illustrates the lender’s ambitions for the Asia-Pacific region, where it hopes to grow its revenue from the current €2 billion (S$3.5 billion) to €3 billion in the next three years.

The banking sector in Singapore is also continuing to grow, said Mr Menon.

“In 2013, the financial sector grew by 11 per cent, against the overall GDP growth of 4.1 per cent. This is supported by increased activities in corporate transaction banking, trade finance, fund management, private banking and reinsurance,” he added.

“Last year, a total of 4,500 jobs were created in the sector, most of them in higher value-add activities.” Wong Wei Han