BNP on IT spree

BNP on IT spree

23 July 2008

Simon Mortlock

It seems Singapore’s IT jobs bonanza is still far from over, with BNP Paribas Private Bank the latest employer on the hunt for techies. The French firm is recruiting about 100 new staff as it sets up an IT development hub in the city state.

Ricardo Sanchez-Moreno, chief operating officer of the private bank in Asia, tells us that candidates with knowledge of vendor-based systems (such as Olympic, AAA, Assist and Papyrus) are most in demand, with private banking experience also beneficial.

“We are mainly looking for project managers, business analysts, software engineers and developers to support the hub in its application development and system integration of standard applications for private banking,” he says.

The bulk of the IT developers will be new recruits, and hiring will happen over the next 14 to 18 months. Sanchez-Moreno explains: “The number of transfers from other BNP Paribas locations will be minimal. Recruitment will take place in Singapore, and abroad if there are profiles for which we can’t find locally suitable candidates.”

Matt Dunham, managing director of recruitment company Confero, says large banks in Singapore recruit senior developers from a variety of countries – including India, Australia, the US and UK – because growing demand means there aren’t enough local people to fill the vacancies.

While front-office developer jobs are more sought after and higher paid, Dunham says they come with additional stress. “Banks are more selective about front-office recruitment and need people who understand and can communicate with the business. They want people who can communicate with fast talking traders,” he adds.

The growth of Singapore as a global private banking centre was a major factor in BNP’s decision to expand its IT headcount there. “We wanted to set up our global hub in a country that had a reliable telecommunications infrastructure and offered a large pool of highly qualified professionals in the IT domain at competitive rates,” explains Sanchez-Moreno.

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