Hong Kong Towards a Leading Global FinTech Hub

68 69 Talent Part I: Examination of Seven Fintech Hubs Singapore: Encouraging Local Fintech Development While Restricting Foreign Talent The fintech talent supply in Singapore is not meeting its demand. In 2019, a survey from the FinTech Employment report showed 94% of respondents agreed that Singapore was facing a major shortage of fintech talent. 233 Fintech programs such as those organized by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) are estimated to produce 400 graduates each year, which is far from the target set by the government to provide 1,000 fintech graduates per year. The shortfall of roughly 600 people may need to be supplied from overseas. 234 At the same time, the Singapore government appears to be tightening its immigration policy, which may increase the difficulty in attracting foreign fintech talent. In March 2020, the Ministry of Manpower increased the minimum qualifying salary for new applicants of the Employment Pass to encourage Singapore businesses to hire more local employees in the post-pandemic economy. 235 To ensure a sufficient local supply of fintech talent, Singapore’s initiatives focus on the education of future talent, and to upskill and reskill the existing workforce. The MAS signed agreements with five polytechnics to incorporate tech skillsets into their curricula and to set up the Asian Institute of Digital Finance (AIDF) with the National Research Foundation (NRF) and National University of Singapore (NUS) to spearhead fintech education and research. To upskill the existing workforce to facilitate lateral transfers and equip them with skills that match industry needs, several tech and coding academies have been built as part of the Smart Nation Initiatives. 236 The Singapore government emphasizes the importance of establishing a local core workforce to help Singaporeans become an integral part of the fintech revolution. It also subsidizes up to 70% to 90% of the course fees to encourage local talent to receive fintech training. According to the FinTech Talent Survey 2020 jointly conducted by the Fintech Association of Singapore and PwC Singapore, fintech companies in Singapore are shifting towards hiring local talent. 237 The Hiring in Fintech survey by Michael Page indicated that 63% of surveyed Singapore fintech employers prefer domestic fintech talent. 238 The preference in hiring locally could possibly be influenced by the increased availability of local talent with new abilities due to Singapore’s upskilling initiatives and also the increased challenges in recruiting foreign fintech talent in the post-COVID environment. The COVID-19 situation has unexpectedly created more opportunities for fintech talent development. In May 2020, in response to over 100,000 livelihoods affected by the national lockdown rule, the government launched the SGUnited Skills Programme , 239 which provides reskilling training and job support in many areas related to the fintech sector, such as cyber security, data analysis, and digital literacy. Other programs such as the Professional Conversion Programme 240 and the FinTech Talent Programme 241 provide university training, internships, and mentoring in fintech-related areas, as a new pipeline of future fintech talent for Singapore. New York and San Francisco: Overcoming Tech Talent Shortage Across the US The US financial and fintech sector has been struggling to meet the demand for new tech labor, and seeing a widening skills gap in areas such as AI and cybersecurity. The tech talent shortage has exacerbated in recent years, especially post-COVID-19. The acceleration of AI and job automation has not reduced the need for fintech workers. Instead, the trend has led to a shift for higher demand for higher-level skills and new roles such as data scientists and cybersecurity and cloud computing engineers. Over 80% of financial institutions and fintech companies have plans to increase the number of fintech roles and around one-third of the companies find it “extremely challenging” to find candidates with the necessary skills. 242 The New York State Comptroller estimated in its September 2017 publication The Technology Sector in New York City 243 that tech jobs comprised about 11% of the entire securities industry. As of the third quarter of 2017, more than 3,300 fintech companies were identified, of which 40% were focused on banking and capital markets. 244 Business leaders from the local technology sector have expressed their concern with the talent shortage. In particular, fintech companies are struggling to hire for computer programming and tech engineering positions. In response to the national tech talent shortage, the US federal government launched the TechHire 245 initiative in 2015 to build new tech talent pipelines through innovative training and placement models by local communities and employers across the country. Traditionally, tech companies are concentrated in the Silicon Valley, but as of November 2018, New York has already surpassed the San Francisco Bay Area in terms of having the largest tech talent market in the US, with 333,000 tech workers in New York over San Francisco Bay Area’s tech talent pool of 310,000. 246 New York was also recognized as the world global technology leader, again surpassing San Francisco, in the UK’s Savills Survey 247 in 2019. However, just after one year San Francisco has reclaimed its crown for 233. Michaelpage. | Singapore – Hiring in fintech, survey and dialogue.| https://www.michaelpage.com.sg/sites/ michaelpage.com.sg/files/legacy/16785-sg_fintech_brochure_mp.v6_0.pdf 234. Bloomberg. | Singapore Has Fintech Dreams, But It's Short on Tech Talent (May 2018). | https://www.bloomberg. com/news/articles/2018-05-29/singapore-s-fintech-ambitions-bump-up-against-immigration-curbs 235. ASEAN Briefing. | Singapore's Ministry of Manpower Revises Rules on Hiring Foreign Employees (May 2020). | https://www.aseanbriefing.com/news/singapores-ministry-manpower-revises-rules-hiring-foreign- employees/#:~:text=On%20March%203%2C%202020%2C%20Singapore's,the%20Employment%20 Pass%20(EP). 236. Smart Nation Singapore. | Initiatives . | https://www.smartnation.gov.sg/what-is-smart-nation/initiatives 237. PwC, Banking and Financial Services Union and Singapore Fintech Association. | Seizing opportunities for growth FinTech Talent Survey 2020 (2020). | https://www.pwc.com/sg/en/financial-services/assets/seizing- opportunities-for-growth-fintech-talent-survey.pdf 238. Michaelpage. | Singapore – Hiring in fintech, survey and dialogue . | https://www.michaelpage.com.sg/sites/ michaelpage.com.sg/files/legacy/16785-sg_fintech_brochure_mp.v6_0.pdf 239. Social Service Institute. | SGUnited Skills Programme. | https://www.ssi.gov.sg/training/sgus/ 240. Workforce Singapore. | Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) for Individuals. | https://www.wsg.gov.sg/ programmes-and-initiatives/professional-conversion-programmes-individuals.html 241. Singapore Fintech Association. | FinTech Talent Programme . | https://singaporefintech.org/fintech-talent/ 242. Insart Fintech Engineering. | Fintech Talent Shortage: Risk of Inaction 2020 .| https://www.insart.com/wp- content/uploads/Fintech_Talent_Shortage_Report.pdf 243. The New York State Comptroller. | The Technology Sector in New York City (Sep 2017). | https://www.osc.state. ny.us/files/reports/osdc/pdf/report-4-2018.pdf 244. U.S Department of Treasury. | A Financial System That Creates Economic Opportunities Nonbank Financials, Fintech, and Innovation (Jul 2018). | https://home.treasury.gov/sites/default/files/2018-07/A-Financial-System- that-Creates-Economic-Opportunities---Nonbank-Financi....pdf 245. The White House. | TechHire Initiative. | https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/issues/technology/techhire 246. Bartels, A., Meneer, N., Guarini, M. & Danilow, A. | 2018 US Tech Talent Hotspots: Tap New Metro Markets To Get The Tech Talent You Need At A Cost You Can Afford (Nov 2018). | https://www.forrester.com/report/20 18+US+Tech+Talent+Hotspots/-/E-RES145715?utm_source=blog&utm_campaign=research_social&utm_ content=Bartels_145715# 247. Savills. | Tech Cities in Motion (Feb 2019). | https://www.savills.co.uk/research_articles/229130/274942-0