Yes, manufacturers need backend service to market and service clients, which forms a SG&A for the company, pull out a report, a 20% of revenue is normal.

Financial services is different, what they have is good people to sell their services, smooth talker to market their financial products - they can afford a big pay check for their COGS is mainly just their payroll, no direct material like the case of manufacturer.

Agreed that Singapore has built a sturdy manufacturing base economy. Singapore needs the mix of manufacturing and financial services to feed its people from all walks of life. See.. manufacuring is needed to create the fundamental economic base and minimal spending power. This gives rise to group of retail investors who thinks they are a little savvy in investing their wealth (after they read up on bulls, bear, calls, puts and spreads). So, they created the demand for financial services, they created the need for institutional investors - and who created these? they are millions and millions of retail investors like you and me.

Now, here the catch, everyone of retail investor put $1000, hoping to reap $1200 a year later. And, the financial guy that made this happened has to make $1500 out of it (because he has to pay himself). Well, a lot of truths in this scenarios. Every retail investors make $200 and financial services guy make $300, years after years. Em... so where the extra $500 come from? Uncle Sam keep printing monies? Face it, after a lengthy vicious cycle, $500 made over the $1000 invested, comes from another $1000 of another retail investor who just jump in, and this other retail investor make his other $500 from the 3rd retail investor, it goes on and on... until one sunny day the bubble bursts. All 3 retail investors lost the $500 they made + the principles (because you still have to feed the highly paid financial guy).

One day, when investors decided to bail out - the whole chain will be affected, those time the market wrongly (those only invested and yet to reap the profit) hit worst. Even if then, we need financial services, we can't afford to pay them.

Story is - there's always the scary economic cycle. Whether or not to jump into financial services, i think it all depends on timing. THose that can't time it right, like me, I call it a gamble.