Jobs today, gone tomorrow?

Watch this space. Banks are beginning to move senior operational staff from Melbourne and Sydney to India and Singapore. Junior and mid-ranking staff could follow.

ìWeíre talking about the top end operational roles,î says Adam Kolokotsas, a senior manager with recruitment firm Tanner Menzies. He says compliance and risk, IT and other operational roles, as well as expertise in infrastructure and structured finance, are all moving offshore.

ìI think itís an indication of where global investment banks are moving and where they see expansion,î Kolokotsas adds. ìAnd the key executives are following the market.î

Earlier this week, Merrill Lynch announced plans to build one of three global support functions in Singapore to provide 24/7 support to its businesses. Merrill already employees around 400 people in the country, and plans to boost this to 900 by 2008. Itís not the only one focusing on the Island State - Credit Suisse recently announced plans to recruit up to 4,000 into investment banking, asset management, private banking and operations roles in Asia over the next two years.

Whether jobs are likely to be lost in Sydney and Melbourne as a result is another question. A spokeswoman for Credit Suisse in Sydney said she couldnít comment on whether staff from Sydney would be seconded to Asian centres as part of the groupís expansion.

However, one recruiter told us that both Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse have been transferring jobs from Australia into Singaporean hubs: ìItís a gradual process rather than a mass cull,î he said. ìThey need to find and train the right people and that takes time.î