2024 Market Summary: APAC Risk Management

After the restrictive hiring environment of 2023, many had hoped or even expected that 2024 would see a return to more buoyant recruitment conditions. The reality was, in fact, the opposite, with a combination of both new and ongoing market challenges catching many off-guard.

Our hiring volumes are down nearly 40% across corporate functions versus last year.”

Talent Acquisition Lead | Corporate & Investment Bank

Whilst candidates have remained broadly open to new opportunities in both Hong Kong and Singapore throughout the year – appetite seemed to dwindle somewhat in Q4 – limited budgets and almost record-low attrition rates have combined to inhibit opportunities to explore roles in most sectors. Hiring managers have also faced many headwinds from a headcount perspective, however, several firms have been able to quickly secure strong, external talent in light of the various retrenchments and restructuring we have observed.

Note: The following data is based on observed Hong Kong and Singapore people moves in the second line of defense at the Vice President (or equivalent) level or above.

Location and sector trends

We have observed a return to parity across both the Hong Kong and Singapore markets, with the levels of activity almost equally split across both hubs. This is a positive indicator, since Hong Kong saw a marked slowdown versus their Southeast Asian rival through the COVID years.

Although accounting for more than 60% of the total people moves throughout 2024, the sell-side as a collective has continued to face a slow-down in total hiring. It has been interesting to observe the breakdown in activity across the two hubs as Hong Kong, typically viewed as a more banking-focused market, has seen a close-to-even distribution across both the sell-side and buy-side, whilst it has been in Singapore that banking moves accounted for the majority of the total activity. 

Outside of banking, insurance has accounted for the largest portion of people moves, with the Hong Kong market especially seeing continued activity in both newly created and replacement hires. Similar new headcount growth was seen in the hedge fund market throughout the year, with both new fund launches and international funds expanding offices in the region requiring new portfolio and quantitative risk candidates. 

It has been a year of two halves for the traditional asset management sector, accounting for only 10% of non-bank people moves through the first two quarters, before much more active third and fourth quarters saw the market account for 22% of the total non-bank hires. Unlike their hedge fund peers, much of the activity we have observed in this market has been replacement hiring.

Hiring analysis by risk type

Unsurprisingly, the traditional risk types continue to constitute the majority of activity given the respective size of their teams. However, 2024 also saw a significant return to activity for technology/cyber risk hiring. Having accounted for only 7% of the observed moves throughout 2023, this has increased by five percentage points to 12% for 2024.

Conversely, market risk has seen a marked reduction in activity, falling seven percentage points from last year to account for only 10% of the total observed moves in 2024. We have also seen a small decrease in the volume of operational risk hires, likely influenced by continued efforts to grow and develop 1LOD non-financial risk functions. 

Now accounting for only 3% of the total people moves, climate risk hiring continues to fall as firms seemingly prioritise headcount in other risk types.

Below is a breakdown of how hiring patterns have fluctuated across risk types from 2022–2024:Candidate tenure – the total time spent with their former employer prior to assuming their current role – has presented a slight decline versus 2023, with candidates spending on average 5.1 years with a firm prior to moving externally. Chief Risk Officer and credit risk candidates continued to have some of the longest tenures, with climate risk also surprisingly increasing significantly compared to the previous year to the longest tenure at 6.5 years.

Conversely, market risk (3.6 years) and quantitative risk (1.5 years) hires have seen the shortest tenures across the risk types. One can reasonably consider this quantitative risk figure to be something of an anomaly, but it is nonetheless reflective of both client and candidate appetites within these skillsets.

Chief Risk Officer activity continues

Despite a slowdown in the last two quarters of the year, overall Chief Risk Officer hiring across Hong Kong and Singapore accounted for the same portion of total market moves as the previous year at 23%. From a sector perspective, the second half of the year did see a slight uptick in activity for the banking sector versus the first two quarters, however, the majority— almost two-thirds—of hires/appointments were observed within non-banks. The insurance market in particular was active throughout the year, accounting for just under 25% of all CRO moves.In a reversal of the trends observed in 2023, Hong Kong proved to be the most active hub for Chief Risk Officer hiring, accounting for 61% of the total market activity. The aforementioned activity in the insurance sector was a key driving factor behind this, while banking and asset management both saw a much more even split across the two locations.

We will explore gender diversity trends in more detail in the following section; however, one noticeable trend throughout the year is the disappointing lack of female representation observed in the Chief Risk Officer market, both compared to other risk types and versus 2023. Female talent was seen to account for only 13% of the total CRO moves in 2024, falling 11 percentage points versus the previous year.

Wilson completed a specific Chief Risk Officer hiring trend analysis in late 2024, which can be accessed here.

A focus on gender diversity

Overall, it has been a disappointing year for gender diversity, with female talent accounting for 29% of people moves, dropping three percentage points compared to the previous twelve months, and falling below 30% of the total market share for the first time since 2021.

Whilst female representation within the Chief Risk Officer pool continues to prove the most challenging, other typically male dominated risk types such as market, quantitative and technology risk also see female talent account for less than 30% of the total activity. In a surprising trend, operational risk saw a marked decrease in female talent changing roles (24%), falling from 38% in 2023.

There is very little difference observed in gender diversity across Hong Kong and Singapore, with female talent accounting for 30% and 28% of the total people moves respectively. This is an encouraging result for Hong Kong in particular, increasing five percentage points versus 2023.

The banking sector continues to account for the majority of female people moves at 37%, compared to 23% across non-banks. The investment management sector remains especially heavily male-dominated, with female talent accounting for less than 15% of all activity across asset management, private banking, and hedge funds.

From a mobility standpoint, female talent continues to demonstrate a higher tendency to move internally, with internal mobility accounting for 38% of all female moves, compared to 30% for their male counterparts.