Balance Between Having Foreign Talent and Local Workforce Development in Financial Sector

4 Mr Yip Hon Weng asked the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance in light of the current talent shortage in Singapore's financial sector (a) how does the Ministry ensure that efforts to attract foreign talent are balanced with the development and progression of the local workforce in the financial sector; (b) what measures are in place to maintain such balance in this sector; and (c) how does the Ministry monitor their effectiveness.

The Minister of State for Trade and Industry (Mr Alvin Tan) (for the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance): Sir, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is committed to developing our financial sector’s local workforce while being open to complementary foreign manpower. Working closely with industry, we invest heavily in building skills and capabilities in our local workforce to enable our locals to take up good jobs in our financial sector. As a leading regional and global financial centre, Singapore must continue to attract high-quality talent, both locally and from abroad, in order to stay competitive.

This balanced approach has been key to Singapore’s success as a global financial centre. We are now a leading financial centre in Asia and the third most competitive globally. We are home to over 2,500 licensed financial institutions and employ close to over 200,000 people. Over 80% of our financial sector workforce is local and the sector offers the highest median gross incomes amongst employed locals. Over 2018 to 2023, the financial sector workforce grew by more than 25,000, of which more than nine out of 10 of the net jobs created went to locals.

To help locals acquire skills and capabilities to take on the good jobs in our financial sector, MAS has committed $400 million from 2021 to 2025 to support the training of local finance professionals at each stage of their careers.

At pre-entry and entry levels, MAS provides funding for internships, apprenticeships and job rotation programmes to equip our polytechnic and university students and fresh graduates with the skills to take on the jobs that we have created in the financial sector. At the mid-career level, MAS provides opportunities for finance professionals to both upskill and reskill. We work with training providers to develop relevant courses, subsidise these course fees and develop career conversion programmes with financial institutions for our mid-careers. At the senior-level, MAS supports the development of senior leaders through overseas postings, leadership programmes and by building leadership networks.

Financial institutions also recognise the importance of growing and developing local talent to meet their manpower needs. For instance, in 2024, I had the opportunity to work with OCBC to launch “OCBC Ignite”, an accelerated career programme that comprises an internship and apprenticeship on full-time employment with the bank. OCBC Ignite aims to benefit 500 polytechnic students and graduates over three years. UBS also partnered the Government to develop the UBS-SUPER programme in 2020 and has trained over 400 fresh graduates and mid-career professionals. UBS has also doubled the number of Singaporeans sent on overseas postings, compared to pre-COVID-19 levels.

Mr Speaker: Minister of State, would you like to round up your answer?

Mr Alvin Tan: Yes, Sir, rounding up.

Sir, to balance the need to develop the local workforce with the importance of attracting high-quality global talent, MAS closely monitors the overall workforce profile of our financial sector as well as the workforce composition of key financial institutions. We regularly engage senior management of key financial institutions on their workforce needs and composition and on how we can work with them to develop local talent.

The Ministry of Manpower's (MOM’s) Complementarity Assessment Framework (COMPASS) applications encourage firms to support local employment by awarding points based on locals’ share of professional, manager, executive and technician (PMET) roles in the firm. COMPASS also recognises and gives additional weight to global talent who bring in skills in shortage, while the Overseas Networks and Expertise Pass (ONE Pass) attracts and anchors top global talent from around the world.

Finally, Mr Speaker, we will continue to strike a delicate balance, ensuring our financial institutions have access to high-quality foreign talent, while steadfastly developing our local talent pipeline. By maintaining this balance, we will attract more investments and provide good jobs, career choices and progression opportunities for our locals.

11.32 am

Mr Speaker: Order. End of Question Time. The Clerk will now proceed to read the Orders of the day.

[Pursuant to Standing Order No 22(3), provided that Members had not asked for questions standing in their names to be postponed to a later Sitting day or withdrawn, written answers to questions not reached by the end of Question Time are reproduced in the Appendix.]