Top American banks riding high on Donald Trump’s presidency have hired almost 120,000 people in low-cost Asian economies, creating potential tensions with the new administration, which has pledged to bring jobs back to the US.
Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs employed 12 per cent of their total global workforce in Asian support centres in 2015 — the most recent data available. This compared with 10 per cent of overall jobs in 2013, according to figures compiled for the Financial Times by McLagan, a pay benchmarking company.
US banks have increasingly sought to cut costs and jobs at home to combat tougher regulation and sluggish revenue growth. David Warfield, associate partner at McLagan’s performance practice, said the banks were likely to continue adding staff outside the US, despite the Trump administration urging companies to invest more at home.