Broking Pressures Prompt Cuts at Maybank Kim Eng

The job cuts are part of a broader review that also affects Maybank Kim Eng’s regional institutional sales and research, and Hong Kong investment banking and advisory businesses.

Maybank Kim Eng (KE), the investment banking arm of Maybank, is restructuring its retail brokerage operations, and 5 percent of its staff in Singapore, or about 30 people, are being laid off, the firm said in an internal memo circulated.

About 3 percent of its global workforce of 2,000 are affected by the latest exercise. The firm has about 600 employees in Singapore, which includes 400 full-time staff and self-employed remisiers, though none of the latter were affected, «BT» reported. Back office staff are among those being let go.

The restructuring was prompted by changes in the investment banking landscape, including shifting customer preferences, increasing automation and digitalization of brokerage offerings, and changes in the regulatory environment, a spokesperson told the newspaper in a statement.

Lower trading commissions and the growing popularity of passive investing with robo-investors are putting a strain on securities brokers like Maybank KE, which reported a pre-tax loss of 7.3 million ringgit ($1.75 million) for the first nine months of 2019, compared to a pre-tax profit of 227.4 million ringgit for the same period last year.

Singapore, however, continues to be the firm’s largest market outside its home base Malaysia. Maybank KE is the city-state’s 15th-largest broker, with a 3.38 percent market share.