Finance professionals with “significant” experience in risk management, risk assessment and governance will be in demand throughout Europe, the US and Asia, according to accounting body CPA Australia president Alex Malley.

Malley says this is because these are the areas “where the economies have fallen down” in the current financial market.

“The dial is turning from bankers and those who expand businesses, in the way they have in the last 10 years, to bringing in someone to tighten the business up,” he says.

“If I was about to set up a consultancy profession, that would probably be the area that I would see the greatest opportunity.”

Meanwhile, Malley points to Asia as the next big destination for finance professionals, with Shanghai, Beijing, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore as the hotspots.

“There’s something like one professional accountant for four positions available broadly in Asia. I think that is going to probably grow in the context that London and the US may shrink for a while in terms of both people’s desire to go there for the moment and demand for them,” Malley says.
“We see China and greater Asia as being where we anticipate people moving across to.”