The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will intensify its engagements with the senior managements of financial institutions (FIs) on their workforce profiles and plans to grow the Singaporean core, said its managing director Ravi Menon.

"While not yet where we want to be for every FI, the picture across the sector as a whole is better than often portrayed," he said in a letter to The Straits Times published today.

He was responding to a letter published last Saturday by a retired senior banker who called for an examination of the workforce composition in banks.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Manpower said that 47 employers were placed on the watch list for possible discriminatory hiring practices. Most are from the financial and professional services sectors.

Mr Menon noted that Singaporeans are well represented across major business functions in the financial sector - citizens are estimated to make up 70 per cent of the sector's workforce, with permanent residents accounting for another 14 per cent.

But "we need to improve the local proportion in areas like technology and risk management", he said.

"We want to see a strong Singaporean core complemented by high-quality and diverse foreign talent in every major FI."