Alvin Tan on maintaining balance in the financial sector workforce

The government will continue to strike a delicate balance in ensuring that financial institutions in Singapore have access to high-quality foreign talent while developing the local talent pipeline. By maintaining this balance, Singapore will attract more investments, said Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Board Member Alvin Tan in parliament on Monday (Mar 10). In reply to an MP’s questions, he stated that MAS has committed S$400 million from 2021 to 2025 to support the training of local finance professionals at each stage of their careers, and highlighted initiatives by financial institutions to develop local talent. He also noted that over 80 per cent of Singapore’s current financial sector workforce is local and the sector offers the highest median gross incomes amongst employed locals. He shared that MAS closely monitors the overall workforce profile of the financial sector as well as the workforce composition of key financial institutions to balance the need to develop the local workforce with the importance of attracting high-quality global talent.