Australian bankers spared redundancy

Wholesale redundancies donít seem to be on the agenda right now for Australiaís major and regional trading banks, or for most of the investment banks.

Thatís the word from senior recruiters, although the marketplace is still full of downsizing rumours, including one that Bank of America will scale back from a trading bank to a branch office, and that Citigroup will slice into its local headcount.

Edmund Gill, director of Hays Banking, tells eFinancialCareers that large-scale job cuts arenít taking place at this point, but notes that areas such as mortgage operations and back-office processing have come off the boil and there has been some rationalization in those areas.

ìWhat weíve actually found is that there is still a lot of work,î Gill says. ìThere is still strong demand for front-line roles, business developers, commercial lending, institutional and international banking work. There is still a belief that the market will bounce back and that the business has to be driven accordingly.î

His views match those of National Australia Bank CEO John Stewart, who says the Australian market is still well positioned despite the global financial turmoil.

ìI am pleased to say Australia is in a much better position because although we have the same problems in the debt markets we still have a strong economy,î he told The Age last week. ìIt is pretty well business as usual for us.î

Carmichael Fisher senior consultant Oliver Darkes says there have been some redundancies at banks exposed to the US, but it has been ìa clearing of the decksî, to move on weaker performers post bonus time.

ìThere hasnít been a huge raft of retrenchments here,î Darkes says. ìThe banks are still hiring in certain areas Ö thereís just not as much activity as before.î