Goldman Sachs Group is all set to increase the headcount of its Singapore workforce to over 1,000. It is looking to hire about a hundred more people in tech positions. The Group that provides investment banking and asset management services amongst others, relied on its Asia operations for 14 per cent of its revenue, globally, in 2020.
The Group intends to focus on growing its franchise in Singapore, which is an important hub, in terms of asset managers and banking clients. Sixty per cent of its workforce here occupies support positions and tech roles.
Singapore is emerging as an alternative to Hong Kong, where political instability has made it less attractive as a wealth-management centre. In the past one and a half years, Goldman Sachs has appointed 10 global macro traders in Singapore and may take on additional wealth managers and commodity traders in the near future.
Its new foreign-exchange trading and pricing platform in Singapore started operating in 2020.
The Group had to cough up about $5 billion in fines to American, Malaysian and Singaporean regulators when it was embroiled in the 1MDB scandal that took a toll on its reputation. However, it is clear that the scandal has not affected the Group’s plans to expand in Asia. In fact, in Malaysia, which was at the centre of the scandal, Goldman Sachs is operating normally, offering regular asset-management and advisory services.
