DESPITE writing down billions of dollars linked to the United States mortgage crisis, financial giant Merrill Lynch has no plans to stop hiring and investing in Singapore.
The bank's chairman for the Asia-Pacific, Mr Raymundo Yu, gave the assurance in his first interview after its disastrous losses. Some of Merrill's global operations are based in Singapore.
The bank's big write-downs triggered fresh capital injections from the likes of Temasek Holdings, which invested US$4.4 billion (S$6.2 billion) in Merrill.
Temasek has an option to buy another US$600 million worth of shares by March 28 next year, as long as its ownership does not exceed 10 per cent of Merrill's total outstanding common shares.
But in the interview with The Straits Times yesterday, Mr Yu squashed market talk that Merrill was cutting back on expansion plans in Singapore due to the debt crisis.
For example, he pointed out that one of Merrill's key operations in Singapore - the global services centre for its private banking and global markets businesses - is still scheduled to move into its new six-storey HarbourFront office building by the beginning of next year.
The building, which will take up 200,000 sq ft of space, will also house a training academy that will equip staff with skills to perform back- end functions such as the handling of global computer systems, cash management and transaction accounting.
It aims to have at least 1,000 staff there by then. Currently, the bank's 700 global services staff operate out of the 55,000 sq ft support centre at Harbourfront Centre next door.
'We continue to improve on what we have. The market is very fluid and continues to move, so what we need to do is to be sensitive to the marketplace and our client needs,' he said.
Mr Yu said that in Singapore, Merrill is still hiring in areas such as investment banking, fixed income, wealth management, and its commodities business.
'We're very pleased with the pace of recruitment. We continue to hire competitively,' he said, dismissing notions of a hiring freeze.
Merrill now employs about 1,500 staff in Singapore across a range of functions, from private banking to equity research.
'Having Temasek as a large shareholder can only be good for Merill,' said Mr Yu, as he elaborated on how Temasek, a 'savvy investor' that has invested widely in banks across the region, is a 'very good name in the marketplace'.
While there have been predictions by several private bankers that sooner or later, the Singapore market will be saturated and there will be a consolidation of sorts, Mr Yu disagreed.
'Singapore is not only marketing to high net worth individuals in Singapore. It is now a base for regional non-resident Indians, and there is some Middle East money as well, so I think there is still room in Singapore,' he said on the private banking industry in the Republic.
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