SFC staff turnover hits 12pc on banks, immigration lure

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission yesterday revealed that staff turnover surged to 12 percent last year, an increase of 6.9 percentage points year-on-year, with the turnover rate for junior professionals reaching as high as 25 percent.

Most of the workers who quit were either immigrating or moving to investment banks, and most were at the level of manager or below compared to senior management, a source told The Standard, adding that the SFC is in the process of hiring two executive directors.

The regulator told a LegCo panel on financial affairs yesterday that it cut its human resources budget for 2021/22 financial year by HK$30.9 million or 2 percent from a year ago, reflecting a fact that it takes a longer time to fill vacancies, while hiring overseas talents remained difficult.

SFC chairman Tim Lui Tim-Leung said that the average salary is expected to jump by 4.5 percent after having been frozen for two years.

Meanwhile, the SFC will upgrade 32 positions in a bid to provide career progression for high-performing staff.

The SFC's headcount was frozen at 988 in the years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, but is expected to increase by 30 or 3 percent for the year 2022/23 in its budget.

Lui said an additional 50 contract employees will be hired to handle work involving financial technology and the new special purpose acquisition company regime.

Hong Kong's bourse operator has allowed SPACs, also known as blank check companies, to list on its platform from January 1, 2022.

Lui added that the SFC will allow staff to work in different departments, an effort to attract staff by diversifying the work.

The market watchdog expects to book a net profit of over HK$193 million for the fiscal year, much better than the previous estimate of a loss of about HK$179 million, mainly thanks to the higher-than-expected average daily turnover of HK$161 billion in the securities market in the first seven months of the fiscal year.

To that end, the annual income is estimated to jump by around 13 percent to nearly HK$2.31 billion.

Also, the SFC plans to continue to waive the annual licensing fee for the next financial year, which could result in an income forgone of HK$244 million.

The net profit is expected to come in at HK$13.87 million.