The Fintech Talent Development,Competency, and Manpower Study

The Fintech Talent Development, Competency, and Manpower Study 9 Executive Summary The HKUST Business School, in collaboration with Ernst & Young and supported by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, InvestHK, the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, and the Hong Kong Cyberport, invited different stakeholders of the fintech industry to share their views on industry priorities and talent needs. Over 80 fintech organizations, including traditional banking organizations and insurers, digital native organizations, and regulators participated in executive interviews, surveys, and validation sessions from August 2019 to March 2020. Ten Observations about Fintech in Hong Kong Based on inputs from participants of this Study, we make ten key observations about the fintech industry and fintech talent in Hong Kong. Observation 1: Fintech Has No Universal Definition There was a lack of consensus over the definition of “fintech”. For our Study, “fintech” is defined as a collection of organizations combining innovative business models and technology to enable, enhance, and disrupt financial services. This is not restricted to start-ups or new entrants, but includes scale-ups, maturing, and mature companies in many industries. Observation 2: People Who Can Innovate, Adapt and Engage Being flexible, creating out-of-the-box solutions, and being able to facilitate and bring out excellence from diverse types of people was mentioned as essential for fintech professionals. Observation 3: People with Tech, Data, and UX/UI Design Skills Among the 82 surveyed organizations, over 90% of them are investing in more than one type of digital technology. The average number of technologies being invested in is five. Both traditional banks and digital native organizations are actively recruiting talent with the right technical skills. Observation 4: People Capability Lags Behind Tech Capability We found a large gap in people capability compared with technical capability, particularly in the middle management and junior levels. The percentages drop even lower in people capability for individual contributors. This finding is particularly alarming.