By: Andrew Seymour, Managing Director CubeMatch UK.

Which newly emerging careers will feature in the next generation of banking? Andrew Seymour, Managing Director of CubeMatch UK outlines the crucial roles and skills required to take the sector forward

The fintechs are powering ahead with open banking offerings, to such an extent that traditional banks are being forced to keep pace and transform boldly themselves. Meanwhile consumers have demonstrated during the Covid pandemic how ready and willing they are to adopt mobile banking and finance apps for speed and convenience. 

To stay competitive in this new landscape, the bank of the future will need to embrace emerging technologies, adopt evolving business models, and put customers at the heart of every strategy. All this will require a great deal of change management, and an army of highly skilled people carrying out work not previously commonplace in the financial sector. So, what new career opportunities are on the horizon?  

Digital process engineer

While many banks are experimenting with digital, the majority have yet to consistently move towards technology-enabled transformation. There is a vast body of work to come around setting up digital banking customer interactions and delivering a slick, secure customer experience. Whether a customer wants to set up a savings account or replace a lost credit card, the digital processes and standardised workflows for doing so need to be designed and engineered into a bank’s wider ecosystem. The role of digital process engineer will take in complex security elements and regulatory requirements, and involve a great deal of problem-solving and testing. 

There will also be regular updates required for process engineering as technologies and end user expectations evolve. Individuals in this role should also have the ability to combine service and information components from multiple sources. 

AI fraud analyst

Organised criminals are benefiting from the digitisation of banking and adopting innovative ways to commit financial crime. Cybersecurity Ventures expects global cybercrime costs to grow by 15% per year over the next five years, reaching $10.5 trillion USD annually by 2025, up from $3 trillion USD in 2015. In view of this, the finance sector is eagerly embracing advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics to maximise threat visibility and detect fraud as early as possible. 

As the sector undergoes rapid technological transformation, fraud analysts will come to work more closely with programmers and data scientists to develop AI programmes, with the aim of taking meaningful insights from data, instead of spending time going through thousands of transactions. 

Ethical wealth manager

Creating a sustainable, ethical future is a massive area of interest in the finance sector. We see investment management giant BlackRock helping to fund clean energy technology, while financial institutions including ING, and Societe Generale have signed up to the Poseidon Principles, disclosing their climate alignment scores for their ship finance portfolios. Sustainable investing will be an important growth sector, pioneering better ways to do business. Working in this ESG sphere will require specialist knowledge of green energy, governmental tax incentives and financial reporting for sustainable models.  

Banks have a responsibility to restructure and think differently about capital allocation or client transition and processes around it. People working in this domain will be striving to add value by sharing knowledge and supporting clients in their transition to decarbonisation. 

Cybersecurity liaison officer 

To truly tackle cybercrime, inter-company and cross-industry collaboration will be essential looking ahead. Due to the constantly evolving nature of cybersecurity, all stakeholders, from large corporations to start-ups to regulators to policymakers, understand that joining forces and sharing information are urgently needed to prevent cyber-attacks.

This means the role of cybersecurity liaison officer is likely to become integral to fraud and cybercrime departments. It will require a detailed understanding of cyber incidents and threats, and network intrusions, as well as knowledge of regulatory compliance. Crucially this role will be the ability to balance technical knowledge of the digital interfaces with an understanding of security and risk management, while building partner relationships and communicating closely with a host of external agencies.  

Crypto forecaster

Cryptocurrencies have taken the finance sector by storm, albeit with question marks hanging over their long-term feasibility and security. Leading banks are examining the role they could play in this growing field but for many, lack of regulation and extreme volatility are big problem. The likes of Bitcoin can’t be ignored though, so roles in crypto forecasting are proliferating. According to Forbes many crypto investors remain confident Bitcoin will surge far past its recent highs and potentially boost other smaller cryptocurrencies in the coming years. 

Crypto dealing is described as the modern wild west, but as new regulations come in, and different cryptocurrencies launch, forecasters will need to navigate this unknown territory and evaluate the opportunities. Crypto and business analysts will need a detailed understanding of crypto currency technology for trading, pricing and execution.  

At CubeMatch, we know that perhaps the biggest challenge the industry faces is bridging the business and IT gap, aligning an organisation’s objectives with the best-suited technology. We also recognise how change management in finance can only be possible with the right people skills, in particular creativity, critical thinking, and leadership. 

While technological advancements in banking are necessary the human factor should not be overlooked or undermined. The talented change management consultants we engage are problem-solving experts, who can operate at speed, align on business goals, and build momentum in order to realise transformation fast. The domain knowledge they are able to bring to projects helps organisations stay ahead of the competition, so vital today.

Careers in banking and finance are evolving at pace, and by 2030 many new roles, beyond these I’ve explored, will have come to the fore. For organisations planning their talent pipeline, my advice is to tackle the toughest challenges today, while creating opportunities for tomorrow.

(1)https://cybersecurityventures.com/cybercrime-damage-costs-10-trillion-by-2025/
(2)https://www.poseidonprinciples.org/#home
(3)https://www.forbes.com/sites/billybambrough/2021/08/03/crypto-price-prediction-why-bitcoin-could-hit-700000-in-just-10-years/