Mon, 29 Oct 2012

It is increasingly hard for British bankers without Mandarin language skills to get on shortlists for jobs in Hong Kong and Singapore, as the pool of new jobs available shrinks.

This is according to financial services recruiter Astbury Marsden, who says that 40% of the Hong Kong banking jobs it handled in the last quarter required Mandarin, with this number rising further since.

However, it does note five areas where Mandarin speaking is commonly not essential: compliance, management consultancy dealing with Western clients, product control, sales to Western institutions and trading.

Mark O’Reilly, managing director of Astbury Marsden for Asia Pacific, says: “In general, more senior-level appointees are not yet expected to speak Mandarin, as candidates at VP and director level are seen as adding value through other skills and experience. Unfortunately for more junior banking staff, the linguistic demands are becoming more acute.”

• For more on the increasingly squeezed Singapore professional recruitment market, click here to read ‘Plan ahead before your Singapore fling’ (Recruiter, August 2012).