Broker says the "boy's club" of banking has led many people who don't fit the mould to become brokers
There is a boy’s club mentality operating in the Australian banking industry that has led to many people who don’t fit the cultural mould to start their own business as brokers, according to John Ng. Speaking to MPA on the issue of cultural and ethnic discrimination, he said his background at one of the big four banks was an eye-opening experience.
“A lot of good brokers are actually very bitter bankers,” he said. “I’m one of them. A lot of us have done our time but we’ve been passed over for promotion because it’s not what you know but who you know.”
Ng moved from Singapore to Australia as a mature aged international student at the age of 25. After finishing a degree in journalism, he started a career in banking. Both experiences opened his eyes to the prevalence of racism – something that seemed to subtly pervade every aspect of Australian society.
“It doesn’t matter how well you think you speak or how educated you are, people always assume you don’t speak English, or you don’t speak it well,” he said. “You constantly have to try harder just to prove that you speak the language just as well as they do.”
He said it’s not so much racism that is responsible for the lack of cultural representation in the industry – it’s the boy’s club mentality that operates on an executive level. This has led to talented people from different cultural, socio-economic or gender backgrounds being left behind when it comes to career progression.
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“If you had the benefit of being sent to a private school where your parents are paying $30,000 a year, at the end of the day, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” he said. “If you tell me that some of the executives that weren’t passed over for promotion got their role purely because of their skill set and expertise, I’d be laughing because I know that’s not true. A lot of hard-working people get passed over because the candidate has already been selected.
“I’m not here to fan the flames, but just specifically within the broker industry, seven out of 10 people will mirror my sentiments. Maybe not so much from an ethnic makeup perspective, (but it could be from an), it’s not what you know but who you know, or from a gender makeup perspective. A lot of us have experienced it but wouldn’t say it outwardly.”
While there has been a push for diversity and inclusion in the finance industry in recent years, a lot of people get hired to merely “tick a box,” said Ng.
“Tokenism is everywhere,” he said. “Ticking the diversity box is one thing, but it needs to be done correctly.”
While many people have left banking to start their own broking business after being passed over for promotion, Ng said this has led to a diverse broking industry – something that has benefitted the wide range of consumers looking for finance solutions in a multicultural society.
“A lot of consumers tend to gravitate towards a broker or banker with the same cultural background, to a degree,” he said. “I would say South Asians tend to gravitate towards South Asian brokers, only because they’re not comfortable dealing with someone that doesn’t speak their mother tongue.
“People can use ethnicity and gender in a positive way. I know some very successful female brokers of non-Western and Northern European descent whose majority of clients are Vietnamese. There are a lot of people who have tapped into their market because English is the second or third language. You can flip it around and harness the potential.”
