‘No two days are the same’: Inside the lives of Singapore’s remisiers 

[SINGAPORE] At 5 am, while most people are still asleep, Ernest Lim is already scanning overnight headlines, bank reports and analyst research to piece together how the markets might move. He then sets his priorities: who needs a call, what needs to be followed up and what can wait until the end of the work week.

At 8.10 am, he joins a daily analyst call. After that, the day belongs to the market.

“Once the Asian markets open, the pace picks up significantly,” said Lim, a remisier at CGS International Securities Singapore. “My day is spent executing trades, responding to clients’ queries, conducting research and managing my own investment portfolio.”

For Maybank Securities remisier Karen Ng too, the day revolves around market movements and client needs.

She spends the first hour after the market opens monitoring prices. Each month, she sends frequent traders a summary of their activity and a portfolio breakdown, including the sectoral distribution of their holdings and company yields.

“No two days are exactly the same,” she told The Business Times. “We have to stay updated on the market while remaining accessible and responsive to our clients.”

A profession in transition

Lim and Ng are among about 2,000 licensed remisiers in Singapore. These trading representatives are generally classified as self-employed, though they are usually officially affiliated with a licensed stockbroking company where they advise clients on stocks and execute trades on their behalf.

Many are in their 50s and 60s, and there was a time when it seemed as if the profession would die out. But it is reinventing itself, with trading increasingly moving online.

Remisiers first emerged in Singapore in the early 1900s, during the colonial period in what was then known as Malaya, which comprised the crown colonies of Melaka, Penang, Singapore as well as the Federated and Unfederated Malay States.

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The remisier of that period dealt primarily in rubber and tin-related companies that were listed on the London Stock Exchange on behalf of Malaya-based clients.

The role has evolved considerably since then, with Singapore’s markets moving beyond rubber and tin and increasingly shaped by stocks. Improvements in technology have also meant that executing trades is not dependent on telephones and cables as before.

Today, remisiers need to operate in a more sophisticated environment. Investors now have different ways to access information to guide their trading decisions, and digital trading platforms have also lowered the barrier to entry and opened up a wider range of investment options for them.

Against this backdrop, the human touch is all the more vital, noted remisiers.

Maybank Securities’ Ng argued that the role of a remisier risks becoming obsolete if it is reduced to order-taking alone.

“If a remisier’s role is simply to take orders, then technology has certainly made that function increasingly redundant,” she said, noting that online platforms offer commissions as low as 0.03 per cent.

But technology can go both ways. While it lowers the barrier to entry for retail investors, remisiers who embrace technology and artificial intelligence can also provide better-informed views and set themselves apart from the competition.

Ng added that the profession is still one that is relationship-driven, requiring remisiers to understand each client’s investment objective and circumstances.

It is a view shared by her counterparts, regardless of whether they are veterans or new to the industry.

Lim, who joined the industry in June 2010, has witnessed the rise of online trading platforms and believes remisiers must offer clients more.

“As trading execution becomes increasingly commoditised, it is important for remisiers to demonstrate the value they can bring beyond simply placing trades,” he said.

That value, he pointed out, lies in market insights, access to management teams, timely information, professional networks and personalised service.

Benedict Lim, investment representative and remisier at online brokerage Tiger Brokers, described the role as a “high touch business”, as it involves managing several hundred clients and WhatsApp messages round the clock.

“A significant part of my time goes towards maintaining client relationships, providing ongoing support, representing the company externally, and preparing for events and content,” he said.

A former bank relationship manager, Benedict Lim – who calls himself a “new-age” remisier – made a mid-career switch through Tiger Brokers’ Leap (Learn, Experience, Achieve, Perform) Programme about 1.5 years ago. The six-month training initiative, open to fresh graduates and mid-career switchers, is billed as an industry first.

The “bionic adviser”

For Marcus Toh, principal investment specialist at Phillip Securities, a remisier’s value lies in more than providing market information and execution.

He sees the role as that of a mentor, particularly for inexperienced investors who may have access to trading platforms but lack the knowledge to use them well.

Many do not know where to begin, how to develop trading ideas or what investment time frame suits them, he said. Others venture into illiquid stocks and end up holding losing positions for years.

“Remisiers bring a wealth of experience, as those who are still in the industry are likely survivors who have weathered bull and bear markets,” he noted. “We can assist clients to frame their mindset and find solutions to exit from losing trades.”

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) shares this view, seeing technology as a way to enhance remisiers’ expertise and client relationships.

Shimona Wong, account relationship manager at SGX, told BT: “We see the remisier of the future as a bionic adviser – one who powerfully combines deep human expertise with technological tools.”

As routine tasks such as trade execution become increasingly automated, she expects remisiers’ value to shift towards “personalised client engagement, timely execution and insights from data and analytics”.

Wong also highlighted that, compared with trading individually through an online platform, a retail investor working with a remisier can be potentially introduced to listed companies and learn more about a particular firm’s growth trajectory. 

A remisier’s evolving role could extend beyond investment advice to offering clients a wider range of financial products as well.

Alvin Yuen, trading representative at Lim & Tan Securities, expects remisiers to broaden their offerings and find new ways to engage with clients and encourage greater participation in the market.

“We want to help customers engage with the market because financial literacy in Singapore is low and there is a lot of potential for growth,” he said.

To keep pace with these changing expectations, remisiers will need to develop new skills alongside their market expertise. 

In September 2024, the Society of Remisiers and the Securities Association of Singapore launched the Remisier Development Programme with SGX’s support.

It comprises three courses, covering generative AI in research, advanced trading and portfolio construction, and digital marketing for client engagement. 

Wong said the programme has attracted more than 350 trading representatives across its various courses since its launch.

“Many have successfully integrated new digital tools into their practice, from using social media for compliant client communication to adopting data analytics for market screening,” she added.

For Ng of Maybank Securities, one of the programme’s key benefits has been gaining access to AI tools that she finds useful in her day-to-day work.

While investors can access many of these tools themselves, she noted that some “appreciate having someone they trust to filter the information and make sense of it for them”. 

“For me, AI has not made my role less relevant,” Ng said. “Instead, it has made me more efficient, allowing me to spend more time understanding my clients’ needs and having meaningful conversations with them.”