In 2018, Singapore lenders beat their Hong Kong counterparts in hiring a larger proportion of technology specialists, as per a report published by JobTech which is a labor market intelligence startup.

About 20 percent of Singapore bank job postings in 2018 were tech-related while only 5 percent of the postings from Hong Kong lenders were tech-focused. Banks which have a sizable presence in both cities posted a larger number of technology jobs in Singapore than in Hong Kong.

DBS posted as many as 630 tech jobs in Singapore in 2018 while only 50 in Hong Kong. J.P. Morgan, which is a banking giant that has large teams in both cities, posted about 640 tech jobs in Singapore while only 170 in Hong Kong.

Data analytics and application engineering were the skills that were most in-demand for these banks in 2018. This data is in line with the banks’ large-scale digital transformation initiatives and their efforts to use analytics to make better data-informed decisions.

Such a widespread hiring effort in Hong Kong and Singapore could suggest that these international banking conglomerates are looking towards this region to lead their digitization initiatives.

Moreover, several of the job postings in the banking sector were related to information security and cybersecurity thus underlining a stronger focus on incorporating higher levels of security mechanisms in their technological architecture.

JobTech found that Singapore banks are searching for a wide range of expertise across different domains which is essential for digitizing a vast sector such as the banking world.