Abruptly, expatriate bankers are cut loose By Keith Bradsher and Julia Werdigier Published: March 5, 2009

SINGAPORE: Bilingual in Chinese and English, with a master’s degree in private wealth management, Marco Wong jumped from a Singaporean bank to Citibank last October and was approached by recruiters from HSBC and Credit Suisse in November.

But Wong lost his job in mid-January as part of broader cutbacks, and he is still jobless now, despite his having peppered banks and recruiters with dozens of résumés.

"It was quite shocking," said Wong, a Singaporean. "I didn’t think it was possible."

As recently as last autumn, financial professionals who lost their jobs in the United States, where the credit crisis started, could hope for new positions overseas. But layoffs have spread quickly from New York to Europe and now to the Middle East and Asia, leaving unemployed bankers with few places to turn and a growing number of jobless expatriates either stranded or forced to move back home after losing their means of support.

Claes Smith-Solbakken, co-founder of Smith & Jessen, an executive search firm in Paris, said he had received more than 100 calls in the past two months from clients asking him to help them return home.

Bank of England sets new policy; ECB lowers ratesAuditors raise doubts about GM’s viabilityChina promises spending, but it might not be new"There are armies of people who lost their jobs or don’t get bonuses anymore," he said, "but they still have the same school fees and other costs to pay."

Some expatriate bankers, seeing the writing on the wall, are turning their backs on the high-paying, high-pressure life.

When David Flynn moved to London from Australia four years ago, he loved being part of a bustling financial center with ample career opportunities and ever-rising bonuses. But as the recession started to bite last year, he said, the excitement ebbed, his work flow slowed and prospects dwindled.

Flynn, 28, an avid mountain biker, decided recently to leave his job at Union Bancaire Privée in London to move back to Perth, where he now advises individual clients on investments.

"London is a great place," Flynn said, "but if you don’t have the money to enjoy all the things that are good, you struggle."

For those trying to cling to their increasingly insecure perches, career counselors are generally telling bankers to use their contacts to look for jobs locally instead of sending résumés halfway around the world.

"Stay put," said Paul Heng, managing director of Next Career Consulting Group Asia in Singapore. "I don’t think there is a refuge anywhere in this world."

A rhyming refrain among laid-off bankers a few months ago - "Try Dubai, Mumbai and Shanghai" - now seems dated, as financial markets in all three cities have crashed.

Also out of date: "FILTH," which stood for "Failed in London, try Hongkong," using an old British spelling for Hong Kong. A long list of U.S. and European investment banks have been trimming staff in Hong Kong as well, although not on the same scale as in Europe or the United States.

About 325,000 financial services jobs have been cut worldwide since August 2007, according to the International Labor Organization, and many banks reduced their bonuses by as much as 80 percent or cut them completely.

While there are no specific figures on the number of expatriate bankers who have been laid off, the cuts have been widespread. Even in the oil-rich Middle East, where banks like Merrill Lynch and Citibank only recently were hiring dozens of investment bankers, expats are packing their bags as plunging oil prices put most deals on hold.

The last place to cut was Asia, where most economies remained strong until exports began to plunge late last year and investors’ confidence crumbled. Big Wall Street investment banks like Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and others have each laid off more than 100 employees in Asia this winter.

More layoffs are likely. "When you need to reduce costs quickly, you just take out 10 percent and that’s it, boom," said one investment bank official who insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Some residential landlords in Hong Kong have begun demanding three months’ deposit from bankers instead of the usual two, because of the risk that tenants may be laid off. Financial-sector recruiters have begun scheduling long vacations to use up annual leave as long as business is slow.

The growing number of highly paid expatriates losing their jobs is expected to affect international schools, particularly in Europe. Schools around the world are on average planning for a decline in enrollment of 5 to 10 percent for the coming academic year, according to International School Consultancy.

Asia has been affected least. The Hong Kong International School and the Singapore American School have each reported no increase in the number of students withdrawing over winter break. But neither has a sense yet of how many may withdraw over the summer.