Everyone I know is leaving or already left

[rajagainstthemachine]

What is a digital strategy anyway? Mobile? Web? E-kiosks ? WebRTC?

[JR8]

One type is creating IT infrastructure that 'let's customers take control' [Cue: Cheering and Trumpets!]. The aim [IME] is the widen the potential market, but at the same time to get customers to do more of their own admin.
As the launched functionality gets taken up, then the living/breathing staff who used to do that work for clients can be laid-off hence payroll reduced. Simple: Increased revenues + reduced costs.

Rao clarified the jobs wouldn't be relo'd, but it could be telling that he didn't say the jobs in SG are somehow invulnerable.

[Apols if this is a bit 'teaching granny to suck eggs', don't know. I was tasked with writing the business case for the creation of an MNC-bank's online trading platform. So spent months crunching all the numbers; effectively how much more net profit it would reap us. And then later as the IT got rolled out saw how it got pitched differently [of course] to the client-base].

[PNGMK]

Digital is a just a dumping ground where I work for has-beens and commerial leaderships trainees who no one wants.

[The Ref]

[Responding to JR8 but PNGMK posted before I finished typing]
Its more than just self service for existing customers, although this is definitely a part of it.

The biggest thing about a "digital strategy" is it allows access to a vast set of new customers. The last numbers I have are Mach 2009, where 53% of the worlds adult population are non banked or under banked. These people are generally poor, in rural areas where a branch network is not justified, but still require services.
If you can get these almost 2.5 billion people to get services, and you can cheaply get a small profit from all of them by keeping services lean, then it will both help the rural poor and make a motza for the banks.
Areas of focus include Mobile at point-of-sale, Mobile as point-of-sale, Mobile money, Mobile loyalty programs, etc
Additionally the customer on boarding will (as JR* suggested) become much cheaper as the documents are scanned by the customer and kept digitally rather than cumbersome and physically voluminous paper.

Because no matter how poor, everyone now has a smartphone even if it is an old model.

I don't know if DBS include new technologies like BlockChain in their Digital Strategy groups yet but that day is not far off. DBS are trialing new BlockChain uses with other banks but this is still mostly driven out of the Innovation divisions.

I dont / have never worked for DBS

But this is off the topic of people leaving

[JayCee]

I have wonder if any longtime bankers on this forum are still here, BillyB, JayCee, Chris Pilgrim, Brian Singapore?

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I didn't realise I was so popular

The first time I've looked on this site in probably 12 months and someone is asking about me

For what it's worth, I left Singapore in April 2014 and went back to the UK, it was something we'd thought about for a while anyway and being laid off by Barclays sealed the deal with the redundancy money coming in very handy. From speaking with one old colleague, my old team doesn't even exist in Singapore anymore, yet Barclays still trot out the "we're committed to Singapore and there are no plans to relocate jobs from here to cheaper locations" (yeah right).

Leaving Singapore was one of best decisions I've ever made, I sometimes miss being able to go to a food court but that's honestly about the only thing I miss, I certainly don't miss the 'friendly and welcoming' locals that's for sure.

We now live in a nice 3 bedroom house with a decent car (no COE!), an hour's commute to my job in London (the same as I had in Singapore as we lived far out west). I have to say that wouldn't live in London if you paid me, that's one place that has gone really downhill in the last decade (thanks Boris), but living outside with a decent commute means that I have much larger earning potential here than I did in Singapore, and our house costs less than a condo would have in Singapore. We have lots of nice countryside almost on our doorstep and reasonable beaches less than an hour's drive away (if the summer ever arrives this year).

Of course, the UK isn't without it's negatives and the British do love a moan about how bad things here are, but having been away for so many years made me appreciate how nice a place to live the UK actually is (as long as you're not in London of course).

[Brah]

Good to see you checking in like this, and it echoes what my UK friends are saying.

[JR8]

Weeeheeeey JC! Nice to see you pop in, and glad you're doing well

I still consider London my home, indeed it is where my home is. But when you expat I think you change without being conscious of it. Also your home neighbourhood changes, and that's largely invisible from abroad. Add to two together and... er, de-locating [lol?] can be a shock. One virtue though is I see friends who haven't relo'd and they're still living in town where they always have. Whereas de-locating gives you an unusual perspective of re-evaluating the way and place in which you actually want to live.
At the end of last year I visited my old neighbourhood for the first time in many years. It was a clash of memories and expectations vs both the neighbourhood and I suppose myself have evolved. I doubt I could deal with living again in my home; at least not for long. But the process of considering where and how me and Mrs. JR8 might most happily live has been a useful one IME...

The above is mostly social/demographic changes. 'Your old local pub, that's now some hideously snobby ga$tro-pub' and so on. The greening of London seems to have had much fall-out making London a much harder and more expensive place to live. Example: All the flippin' bicycle lanes making it tortuous to get anywhere by taxi and even by bus.

I lol'd re: your missing food-courts. It's funny what you miss eh? And telling what you don't. Food courts are one of the main things we miss too; plus the regional travel possibilities that would be tortuous to impossible from back 'ome.

Most interesting to have an update from you. We don't get many de-location updates here. Shame really as most of us are going to go through it.

[Brah]

Most interesting to have an update from you. We don't get many de-location updates here. Shame really as most of us are going to go through it.

Yes, agree, and it would be good to get more such updates and hear what people miss from here.

[Wd40]

Thanks for the update JayCee, glad to know you are doing well in London.

I just got a call from an ex colleague(Indian) of mine. He is now working for big French bank in IT at VP level, salary easily more than 10k a month. His bank is moving his role to London. He is a here from 10 yrs, got his PR 6 years ago, has a hdb. He is reluctant to leave, yet he is taking the offer to move to London. He has no choice. He looked around in Singapore, but didn't get any interview for his profile. He doesn't want to compromise his career either even though he loves SG and calls it home.

His package in London will be higher in absolute terms(more than 80k GBP) yet he expects savings potential to be lower than SG, which is expected, considering he has his own hdb here and travels in mrt.

Interesting point, his hdb has not finished the minimum occupation period, still has 1 more year to go, so he cannot sell it. He is planning to keep the SG PR and the house as backup for 1 more year.

I told him his decision is right, you can continue to live in SG only if compromise on your career. When you are given a choice b/w loyalty to country v/s loyalty to company, its a tough choice, but in this case clearly makes more sense to be loyal to the company considering that he has grown there and he could me moved back to SG or even HK in future, who knows.

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[sundaymorningstaple]

Who would have thought........



Riiiiight!

[Wd40]

Forget US, new immigration rules to make Europe attractive for Indian job seekers
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri ... 654856.cms

I hope this really happens.

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[x9200]

Forget US, new immigration rules to make Europe attractive for Indian job seekers
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri ... 654856.cms

I hope this really happens.

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Openly stating it's not about the UK, and only touching the language barrier problems with the arguments I don't really get (what Spanish etc has to do with it?), does not appear to me as any more attractive as it was earlier or it is now. Except some few countries like The Netherlands and maybe Scandinavia you will have to learn some basic German, or French or other local language to function at any normal level. The current refugee crises and the expectation to integrate will not make it any easier.

[JR8]

Sounds to me [can't copy/paste from the article]... but -> 'The UK is the only country with an immigration limit'. I don't know how close the UK currently runs to that limit, but you'd [hopefully] expect it in future to prioritise skilled migrants, above those who aren't. That seems a core aim of the policy. To the extent it goes on to talk about PR etc... so the long-term aim seems to be to bring in talented new future citizens.

The mention of Spanish, French, Portuguese is surely reference to opening up mobility for highly-skilled migrants from South America and Africa. It all sounds good to me, but being the EU might take some time to get enacted into policy.

[JayCee]

Thanks for the update JayCee, glad to know you are doing well in London.

I just got a call from an ex colleague(Indian) of mine. He is now working for big French bank in IT at VP level, salary easily more than 10k a month. His bank is moving his role to London. He is a here from 10 yrs, got his PR 6 years ago, has a hdb. He is reluctant to leave, yet he is taking the offer to move to London. He has no choice. He looked around in Singapore, but didn't get any interview for his profile. He doesn't want to compromise his career either even though he loves SG and calls it home.

His package in London will be higher in absolute terms(more than 80k GBP) yet he expects savings potential to be lower than SG, which is expected, considering he has his own hdb here and travels in mrt.

Interesting point, his hdb has not finished the minimum occupation period, still has 1 more year to go, so he cannot sell it. He is planning to keep the SG PR and the house as backup for 1 more year.

I told him his decision is right, you can continue to live in SG only if compromise on your career. When you are given a choice b/w loyalty to country v/s loyalty to company, its a tough choice, but in this case clearly makes more sense to be loyal to the company considering that he has grown there and he could me moved back to SG or even HK in future, who knows.

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I agree with you, he needs to do what's right for him and if it involves moving to London then that's what he's got to do. The government here hasn't shown any loyalty to the thousands of people who wanted to make this place their home, invited them here, and then basically forced them out later by changing government policies 180 degrees because of the locals moaning 'dey terk are jerbs' (whilst unemployment stayed at something like 1%).

3 years ago I'd have probably said something like "another Indian PR taking what he can and then leaving", but the environment has changed dramatically nowadays and government policy has made it pretty clear that people like us are no longer welcome, so why hang around in a country doing a job below what you're capable off, probably being treated like c**p, for much less money? (which I assume is what he'd have to do if he wanted to stay in Singapore, due to the dearth of good IT jobs nowadays).

I guess for myself it was different, I was planning to leave Singapore anyway so never looked for anything else once my job was gone, but for the thousands of people losing their jobs in the IT/banking industry they really have a tough decision to make. It can't be easy, especially when you factor in people's families who are in Singapore and who've built a life there.

Btw if he's a VP he wants 90K minimum, that amount will probably leave him about the same as he was in Singapore on 10K a month (maybe a bit less saved, but then you don't have to pay for schools, health etc... Groceries and clothes are much cheaper in the UK, the only thing more expensive here is public transport which is a rip off admittedly)

[Brah]

Well, it's official - SG is now Brah-less