Agreed with the OP. I was a engineer for a few years, and I decided to move to banking for the same considerations. I loved my engineering job, but there's clearly a problem in terms of career & salary advancement in engineering :-

- Most of the jobs are factory and manufacturing type jobs - very stable both in terms of employment, and unfortunately, in salary. Typically, you get 3-6% pay rise every year. And getting a SGD1k pay raise will take forever (unless you work at a place like Exxon or Shell).

- If you are in a design engineering job, not easy to job hop because people in these roles in other companies tend to stick around for a long time, so not many vacancies. If you want to hop to a unrelated industry, you will likely have to take a pay cut.

So in essence, I agree with you in that, if salary is what you are after, do move to banking. And am happy for you that you have come to that realisation earlier than me.

But do note:-
- finding a banking job is not easy. it was very very challenging for me. knowing people in the industry that are willing to give you a chance definitely helps, especially in the front office roles. Be ready to get a foot into the industry via an internship (very critical), even if it means a pay cut.

- front office jobs in foreign banks definitely are less stable than engineering jobs. I've seen many colleagues laidoff in the financial crisis in 2008. And my older colleagues have seen several rounds of layoffs.

- Work life balance is much tilted towards work in the early years and 70-80 hr weeks are not uncommon.

So, its a balance - go in with your eyes open. But from a pay perspective definitely better, cos banks have to pay you market rate or you can easily run off to a competitor bank (and unlike engineering, there are many many other banks which have exactly the same function you are in, whichever function that is).