This is "partly because of declining advisory fees as well as increasingly strong competition from local competitors, particularly in mainland China," Biswas told Sputnik.
"For example, last year the total equity revenues for investment banks in Asia-Pacific are estimated to be down by over 20%. China is a very important market for investment banks and that's why in particular the competition from the big Chinese banks and securities houses has been putting pressure on the large investment banks in Asia-Pacific region," the expert stated.
This trend has resulted in a situation where investment banks have started to more carefully control their spending and reduce their costs, on the one hand, and develop new technologies, on the other.
In particular, they are increasingly using new technologies to enhance product offers and upgrade their systems.
"This is really completely transforming the financial institutions and how they are delivering their services to clients. So, what we are seeing now is the banks and insurance companies in Asia Pacific are gearing themselves up for this revolution in [the field of] financial technology," Biswas said.
According to Biswas, new technologies create opportunities for many bank operations to be done in a digital way, including advising services, insurance payments and other transactions. This shift is already evident in the US, and soon will gradually take place in places like Singapore and other financial hubs in the Asia Pacific region.
"I think we are seeing a very wide transformation not only in the back office, but in many different roles in the financial services industry," the expert concluded.
According to a new survey conducted by a New-York based recruiter, Options Group Inc, 40% of interviewed regional financial-services managers expect to increase the headcount of technology-related roles in their companies this year. By comparison, only 18% intended to add jobs in investment banking.
