Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the minister in charge of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, has laid out his strategy for adding to the pool of talent on which the financial sector can draw.

The minister explained the latest twists of his policy in a letter that he wrote in reply to a parliamentary question.

The regulator is working with financial institutions and the Institute of Banking and finance to "reskill and redeploy local professionals into functions where jobs are growing." Financial institutions have promised to 'reskill' about 4,100 people as part of something called the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) in the next two years, and to redeploy them in new or 'enhanced' jobs.

In the equities market, the bodies and the Society of Remisiers have organised workshops for remisiers on future skills, jobs in demand, and career profiling assessments. They have seen good turnouts. In Singapore, a remisier is a licensed trading representative who is attached to a SGX [Singapore Exchange] member broking firm and who receives 40% of the commission. Until the mid-seventies, the commission rate was 50%.

The Technology in Finance Immersion Programme (TFIP) was launched in April this year to train local people in specific technological areas such as cloud computing, data analysis, full stack development and cyber-security, through structured training and secondments at financial institutions. The inaugural phase for TFIP saw overwhelming demand for more than 80 positions in banking, asset management and the capital markets.

The MAS is using "work-learn pathways, which integrate classroom learning with structured on-the-job training, to prepare tertiary students for financial services sector jobs." For example, the Applied Wealth Management track in the Nanyang Techological University’s Bachelor of Business programme saw many of the inaugural batch of 33 students being offered jobs after they completed their first 10-week internship with DBS Bank. There will be more such partnerships.