WASHINGTON: Trump’s call for U.S. companies to return jobs to the country will be a tall order for U.S. banks, which have more than 10 percent of its workforce in Asia alone, The Financial Times reports. (See also, Wall Street Grows Cautious on Bank Stocks) Overseas support roles at U.S. banks are rising, with top financial institutions having recently hired about 120,000 workers in low-cost regions. Organizations such as Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Citigroup Inc. (C), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Morgan Stanley (MS) and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) had 12 percent of their total workforce in locations in Asia in 2015, up from 10 percent in 2013, The Financial Times reported, citing figures compiled by McLagan, a benchmarking company.
The trend is most pronounced with compliance-related positions in offshore centers in Asia, where the number of staff rose 10 percent to 15,000 employees between 2013 and 2015. “Fifteen years ago, compliance roles would have been seen as essential to locate in the same building as the front office,” David Warfield, a partner at McLagan’s, told the Financial Times. “Today, these activities have been separated into business support roles and more specialized roles. The specialist roles are being supported from alternative offshore locations.” McLagan said U.S. banks were likely to continue adding staff abroad to try to counter slow revenue growth and increased regulation costs. The investment bank divisions of Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley have also increased their staff in Eastern Europe to 2,700 employees, about three times the number of employees in the region 10 years ago, according to McLagan data. Financial stocks have enjoyed a strong rally since Trump was elected. The Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF) is up 22.5% since Nov. 8, 2016.
