By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter

Workers at foreign financial firms, once envied for high salaries, are suffering from the global financial crisis. Some are being laid off and those who were lucky to avoid the pink slip are accepting salary cuts, as operations here are squeezing costs with troubled overseas headquarters struggling.

According to the Korea Financial Investment Association, research staff members at foreign securities companies in the country totaled 212 as of last week, dropping 8.2 percent from the end of last year.

The decrease follows restructuring at foreign securities companies. Goldman Sachs cut the number of research staff by some 20 percent, and other global financial giants such as Macquarie, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch also downsized research teams.

Asset management companies and banks are not exceptions. A number of foreign asset management companies had layoffs as overseas funds sustained huge investment losses. SC First Bank and Citibank Korea slashed workforces by the hundreds through volunteer retirement program, with HSBC following suit.

Those who survived layoffs are seeing salaries plunge and don't expect sales commissions or bonuses for the time being.

Some workers at foreign companies are moving to local players notwithstanding the lower salaries. ``Generally, you build up a career at local player and switch to foreign player at higher salaries, as I did. These days, however, I see some former colleagues submitting resumes to local companies,'' a senior analyst at a foreign securities company said.

Local analysts sometimes suffer as some local companies are substituting them with analysts from foreign companies and the news of a junior analyst at a local securities company taking his own life shocked the industry recently. Analysts believe a fear of losing his job motivated him to kill himself.

However, it doesn't mean ex-employees of foreign financial businesses are always welcome. ``People ask me why I don't hire foreign analysts at this time,'' said a head of a research center at one of the top three local securities companies. ``Though they are available at cheaper salaries now, I don't think careers with foreign player guarantees one's qualifications. Sometimes they don't know about the local market. English skill isn't everything,'' he added.

chizpizza@koreatimes.co.kr