Fintech Industry – A Future Skills Perspective

Anand Agrawal Dec 02, 2021

The world of Technology and Research has seen a boom, whereas the opposite was expected. It is likely to bloom and disrupt all the existing processes across the world. It is an accepted fact that the boom of an industry reflects the newer profiles it opens. The industry here we would like to talk about is Financial Technology, or Fintech where traditional financial processes are being expedited using technology. This mushrooming and blooming enterprises are capable of shouldering the burden of financial inclusion, alongside the traditional banking, hedge funds, and insurances. The MSMEs and small scale enterprises have begun to look at fintechs for easier credit availabilities with decent limits. The technology-enabled solutions are being sought even for the demographically least favored location for inclusiveness and enable the population to seek need-based loans to prosper.

When it comes to careers, fintech includes more general technology for cyber security and Artificial Intelligence (AI). What is crucial here is to strike a balance where the human intelligence is able to boost and constantly upgrade the AI, Machine Learning (ML), and Deep Learning. The one domain that was to see a rapid growth as per the Global Fintech Report, 2017 was Blockchain. The reports are not far from the reality as the growth for blockchain developers is more than 35000% as per Upwork’s reports. They are in demand and are being offered one of the best paychecks. When we hear the word ‘coding’ being discussed on the floors in fintechs, it is these techies at work. It is because the various programming languages such as Java, C++, Javascript, Python, among others are important. The geeks who are proficient in these languages and are capable of being creative and a hustler is imperative. Be it a B2B or B2C, the age for applications is in continuum and every tech entity intends to launch it. For the design and implementation of the designs, teams require product designers and the techies at the front end to put the design into practice. The designers are required even for the website designs, and these designers have to be agile and creative to be able to solve the design hurdles and make the user interfaces easier. With ‘easier and unique’ becoming the trend, the fintech industry despite the confidentiality is looking at designers for individual product pods.

Since we have mentioned ‘data’ in the previous paragraph, we need to focus on the importance of data, its privacy, and timely analysis. The quantitative analysts and data scientists are two profiles that hasve become prominent. These analysts could be certified, or freshers learning on-the-go. Their contribution in data management is valuable as what they analyze and portray through their detailed sheets and diagrams are important for the teams working on financial cases. For instance, our data analysis team helps us determine if in a particular recovery case, legal proceedings need to be triggered or not. They use toolkits and are also responsible for trading programs, developing unique algorithms and executing financial models, all to reduce the human inputs.

Since we are talking about the analysts, we cannot rule out the importance of financial analysts and credit risk management professionals. The CFA© Institute (US GAARP) gives charter to the qualified financial analysts and these people help the fintechs understand the various compliance and ways to reduce the burden. In India, the market is changing at a random pace with the pandemic and likes causing pressure moments. To find solutions for these and also prevent instances such as money laundering or illegal financing, with the constant financial risks the economy is exposed to, CFAs and CRMs have become another high paying job avenues.

With the time to come another angle gaining prominence are Communication Experts who make the internal and external communication for these fintechs seamless. Communication helps to build brand image with subtlety and in the social media age these professionals are as important as the marketing and sales professionals.

Financial firms and their requirement of skilled professionals is likely to improve with the rapid transformation, where human and technological efforts have to be optimized. It is likely that more avenues may open and for that we need to wait and watch.