Western bankers dominate in Asia

Western employees still hold most of the top banking jobs in East Asia outside Japan, despite a drive towards localisation, a survey shows.

While Asian men make up 40% of front office division heads dealing with non-Japan Asia, Western men account for 50%, according to the report by the headhunter Alexander Mann. Six per cent are Asian women and 4% Western women.

"Asians are finding the traditional Western bastions of equities, corporate finance and fund management particularly hard to penetrate, with only one in three jobs coming their way," the survey says.

However, Asians predominate in Treasury, structured products, debt capital markets, and private banking in the survey of 40 institutions.

Mike Brennan, managing director of Alexander Mann in Hong Kong, says: "Language is important. Equities staff often deal with Western fund managers and can use English. In foreign exchange jobs, an Asian language can be more important."

However, Westerners are steadily losing out to Asians in most roles, he says. "It is cheaper to employ a local person and it increasingly makes better business sense, too. Often the perfect candidate for a job is a mainland Chinese with a Western education."

Hong Kong is the biggest banking centre in East Asia outside Japan, the survey found. Fifty-one per cent of the companies surveyed base their top management there, including 75% of their equities managers.

Singapore is closing the gap however, with 42% of top executives. Most top fund managers are based there, taking advantage of government incentives.

Only 7% of the companies cover non-Japan Asia from Tokyo.