HKU-SCF FinTech Academy, Cyberport and Hong Kong Productivity Council Jointly Announce FinTech Talent Study Report Revealing the latest Demands and Challenges of FinTech Talents in Hong Kong
The University of Hong Kong – Standard Chartered Hong Kong 150th Anniversary Community Foundation FinTech Academy (HKU-SCF FinTech Academy), Cyberport and Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) today announced the results from the FinTech Talent Study Report (the Report) at the Hong Kong FinTech Week 2022, revealing an urgent need to nurture more talents to address the FinTech talent gap in the financial services industry. The design of the Study has been benefited from the initial ideas of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and the implementation, primarily carried out by HKPC, has involved in-depth interviews with twelve executives from financial institutions and FinTech companies in December 2021, followed by questionnaire survey of over 390 companies in the financial services industry in May-June 2022.
The survey reveals that E-payment and Digital Currency, as well as Cyber Security and Data Privacy are considered to be the top FinTech trends in Hong Kong, while Big Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are expected to be the key driving technologies to transform the industry in the near future. The industry in general believes that Hong Kong has the potential to lead FinTech development in Greater Bay Area, yet there are rooms for improvement in FinTech development to make Hong Kong a true FinTech leader and competitive among nearby cities; and it is therefore imperative to engage the community to follow up on what Hong Kong is currently missing and what the city should do in relation to FinTech development.
In terms of demand for FinTech professionals, over half (57%) of the companies surveyed are actively looking for FinTech professionals, especially for technical roles. The salary expectation gap was found to be the top issue leading to the FinTech talent gap, and the lack of relevant skillsets being the second issue. The technical roles to be most in demand in the next year include App and Software Developers, AI / Machine Learning Specialists, Blockchain / Digital Currency Specialists, System Architects and Cloud Specialists, as well as Data Scientists. Regarding the skillsets of technical FinTech roles, two-third of the companies surveyed (65%) do not have strong requirements on financial services knowledge. For non-technological FinTech roles (such as Project Managers and Digital Marketing Specialists), nearly two-third of the companies surveyed (64%) require some knowledge of technology, and knowledge in Cyber Security and Data Analytics is most desired. To increase the supply of local FinTech talents, 69% of the companies consider practical experiences such as internship to be more important, while providing more FinTech courses is another effective means to help potential talents build up their foundation.
ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) has become an increasingly important factor in finance (e.g., green and sustainable finance). However, 38% of the companies reported having no knowledge of ESG, and 42% reported having some. Of the companies that adopt ESG practices or engage in ESG-related business development, 85% are currently using or planning to apply FinTech in ESG.
Based on the results derived from the interviews and questionnaire survey, three recommendations are concluded to address the pain points of the industry, including:
- To increase the provision of FinTech courses;
- To encourage more collaboration between the industry and academia to provide FinTech internship opportunities for university students; and
- To raise the industry’s awareness and knowledge of ESG.
For more details of the Report, please click https://fintechacademy.cs.hku.hk/fintech-talent-study-final-report/.
Professor Tak-Wah Lam, Executive Director of the HKU-SCF FinTech Academy and Head of Department of Computer Science in HKU, said, “HKU is mandated to nurture future FinTech talents and shape the growth of FinTech through first-class research. We are gratefully impressed by the enthusiastic responses and support of the financial services industry in this survey. The survey has provided us with a comprehensive and timely guidance on the enhancement of FinTech education on and off campus, and on how to further foster industry-community-university partnerships to advance FinTech and ESG innovation.”