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Address by Mr Hawazi Daipi, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education & Manpower, at the 13th Asia- Pacific Life Insurance Council (APLIC) Congress, 27 July 2011, 9.45am, Resorts World Sentosa

Skills, training and development
Ms Nenette N. Aseniero
Chairperson, Asia Pacific Financial Services Association

Mr Phang Siang Yang
Chairman of the 13th Asia-Pacific Life Insurance Council (APLIC) Congress Committee

APLIC Delegates

Ladies and Gentlemen 

  1. Good morning. First, let me first congratulate the Asia-Pacific Life Insurance Council (APLIC) Congress on the celebration of your 20th Anniversary.

    Introduction
  2. 20 years ago, the first APLIC Congress was held with the aim of raising the standards of professionalism and business practices of financial advisors and managers in the region. Since its establishment, it has helped many in the region to improve their competency and business practices. More importantly, the Congress has forged meaningful ties and cooperation among the regional financial services associations, while providing opportunities for life insurance and financial services practitioners to learn from and share ideas with one another.

    Ensuring quality and professionalism
  3. The last decade has seen a number of significant events such as SARS and the financial crisis and how it triggered a fundamental shift in the global financial landscape. Besides levelling up regulatory standards to meet the risks of an increasingly complex and inter-connected financial services sector, it is necessary to raise the competency standards of financial services practitioners as well.
  4. Financial institutions must put in place policies and practices to ensure that their staff is well trained before they are allowed to deal with clients. The financial industry needs to consider how to do better in attracting talent for the industry, and extend more competency-based skills training to new entrants joining the industry.
  5. To ensure a quality workforce that stays ahead of the curve, the financial industry in Singapore has already taken steps to enhance the level of competency, professionalism and ethical standards of our financial practitioners. The Financial Industry Competency Standards (FICS) – an industry-led initiative - was launched in 2005 to benchmark and certify skills among financial sector professionals. There are also various training schemes1 available to systematically upgrade the capabilities of financial sector professionals.
  6. On top of being competent, financial practitioners have a moral obligation to uphold the trust that customers place with them. Financial advisors must ensure that they provide professional and responsible advice at all times and work out policies that best suit the needs of their customers.

    Conclusion
  7. With Asia experiencing strong growth, hiring expectations in the financial sector have been robust and there is still a strong demand for financial sector talent. Although the latest poll conducted by recruitment firm Hudson found that 49% of the respondents in the Banking & Financial Services plan to grow headcount this quarter, down from 59% in Q2, the underlying sentiment remains positive as financial institutions are still actively seeking candidates with specialised skill sets and experience.
  8. As Singapore's financial industry grows, financial markets and partners will continue to play significant roles in generating and disseminating cutting-edge knowledge and ideas related to different fields of financial practice. Moving forward, I believe that APLIC will continue to play an important role to provide financial services practitioners with a platform to share their expertise and experiences in improving financial services and products.
  9. Lastly, let me take this opportunity to wish APLIC many more years of success and may we all benefit from learning the best practices of financial services from one another. And to all the foreign delegates, I wish you a pleasant stay in Singapore and a safe journey home. Thank you.
    1 Information about FICS accredited programmes can be found here.