Around 2,800 new jobs were created in Singapore’s financial sector despite a slowdown in the industry’s growth rate, according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (
MAS).
Ravi Menon, managing director of the MAS, said that the sector was able to generate additional employment, in spite of a decline in the growth rate from 5.7% in 2015 to 0.7% last year.
The country’s central bank is coordinating with various institutions in banking, insurance, securities, and other financial sectors to identify which jobs that are at risk of being lost in the future due to market factors and advancement of technology such as automation. The government, through the MAS, will work to build the capabilities and skills of financial sector employees to fit the changing times.
“We then work with these financial institutions to proactively up-skill these workers through professional conversion programmes,” Menon told Today. “The sector will disrupt many existing jobs no doubt, but will also create many good ones. Jobs and skills have moved to front and centre of MAS’ financial sector development agenda.”
According to Menon, while digitalisation and automation have caused lost jobs in operations, IT, and technical support roles, the industry is in need of additional workers in areas such as insurance underwriting, asset and wealth management, risk management, and compliance. There are also opportunities for talent in emerging issues and technologies such as cyber security, data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
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