HKU-SCF FinTech Academy, Cyberport and Hong Kong Productivity Council jointly announce FinTech Talent Study Report revealing latest

by James · November 1, 2022

The University of Hong Kong – Standard Chartered Hong Kong 150th Anniversary Community Foundation FinTech Academy (HKU-SCF FinTech Academy), Cyberport and the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) today announced the results of the FinTech Talent Study Report (the Report) at Hong Kong Kong FinTech Week 2022, reveals an urgent need to nurture more talent to address the FinTech talent gap in the financial services industry. The design of the study has been served by the initial ideas of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and the implementation, primarily carried out by the 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 industry in May-June 2022.

The survey reveals that e-payment and digital currency, as well as cyber security and data protection are considered to be the top FinTech trends in Hong Kong, while Big Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are expected to be the main driving technologies to transform the industry in the near future . The industry generally believes that Hong Kong has the potential to lead FinTech development in the Greater Bay Area, but there is room for improvement in FinTech development to make Hong Kong a true FinTech leader and competitive among nearby cities; and it is therefore important to engage the community to follow up on what Hong Kong lacks and what the city should do in relation to FinTech development.

In terms of demand for FinTech professionals, over half (57%) of companies surveyed are actively looking for FinTech professionals, particularly for technical roles. The salary expectation gap was found to be the main issue leading to the FinTech talent gap and the lack of relevant skills was the second issue. The technical roles that will 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. When it comes to the skills of technical FinTech roles, two-thirds of companies surveyed (65%) do not have strong financial services knowledge requirements. For non-technological FinTech roles (such as project managers and digital marketing specialists), almost two-thirds of the companies surveyed (64%) require some knowledge of technology, and knowledge in Cyber Security and Data Analytics is most desired. To increase access to local FinTech talent, 69% of companies consider hands-on experiences such as internships more important, while offering more FinTech courses is another effective means of helping potential talent build their foundations.

ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) has become an increasingly important factor in finance (e.g. green and sustainable finance). However, 38% of 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% use or plan to use FinTech in ESG.

Based on the results of the interviews and questionnaire survey, three recommendations are concluded to address the pain points in the industry, including:

To increase the offer of FinTech courses;
To encourage more collaboration between industry and academia to provide FinTech internships for university students; and
To increase the industry’s awareness and knowledge of ESG.

For more information about the report, please click https://finetechacademy.cs.hku.hk/fintech-talent-study-final-report/.

Professor Tak-Wah Lam, CEO of the HKU-SCF FinTech Academy and Head of the Department of Computer Science at HKU, said: “HKU has a mandate to nurture future FinTech talent and shape the growth of FinTech through first-class research. We are gratefully impressed by the enthusiastic responses and support of the financial industry in this survey. The survey has provided us with comprehensive and timely guidance on improving FinTech education on and off campus and on how to foster industry-community-university partnerships to advance FinTech and ESG innovation.”