The number of bankers and staff employed by Singapore banks mostly remained at the same level as in 2022, although most lenders chose to incrementally hire a few more people in their headcounts.
Data gathered by Singapore Business Review found that the number of employees working across 14 banks in the Lion City fell marginally by 0.19% to 54,872 as of end-2023. Including Standard Chartered’s workforce, there are a total of 63,872 employees across 15 banks in Singapore.
Of the “Big 3” banks, UOB recorded the highest proportion of new hires, with its headcount expanding 9.69%. UOB now employs about 11,057 people as of end December 2023.
OCBC, including its subsidiary Bank of Singapore, trimmed its headcount to a total of 10,939 people.
DBS shared data that it now employs over 36,000 people globally as of 2023, from just 34,000 as of December 2022. A big driver to this jump is the integration of Citi Taiwan’s 3,000 employees into DBS. As for Singapore-only numbers, DBS had around 12,000 employees in the Lion City in 2022. It did not disclose its Singapore headcount for 2023.
All other banks expanded their headcounts. RHB had 656 employees in the city, whilst HSBC had 3,942 people under its employ in 2023. The State Bank of India is larger by nine people by the end of the year, with 126 employees in Singapore. ICICI Bank, meanwhile, ended the year with 20 more employees compared to 2022.
Apart from OCBC, the only other bank to see its headcount fall is BNP Paribas. The bank employs over 2,000 employees in 2023, technically lower than the approximate of 2,200 people it reportedly employed as of end-2022.
Credit Agricole and Citigroup recorded virtually little to no changes in their employee numbers.
In-demand talent
When asked, most hiring heads of Singapore’s banks said that they are looking to hire roles related to wealth management and tech-related roles.
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