Current trends in Finance: Supporting Digitisation

Financial services encompass money management, insurance, payments, and banking. Nowadays the sector is looking toward digitising many of its services and this has been exacerbated by COVID-19.

This collaboration with technology has boosted industry trends that surround digital services and products, especially within the banking sector. Such trends include conversations and implementations from FinTech, gig economy workers, and more.

63% of insurance CEOs believe that the Internet of Things will be strategically important to their organisation.

Source: PWC's 18th Annual Global CEO Survey

The innovative means to digitise current products and services benefit the consumer and the market as a whole. Global interest into FinTech and digital gig work are billion-dollar investments; for organisations less willing to jump onboard digitising their services end up at the bottom of the food chain.

The MFSA, Malta’s leading financial regulatory body, dedicates an entire section of their website to FinTech publications. Due to current working trends steering toward telework, it is unsurprising to learn that financial services are considering technological advancements.

It is worth noting that with a push for technology comes with heightened cybersecurity concerns, specifically for financial services. The IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index (2019) revealed financial services had the highest number of security breaches for three years in a row.

This is because the finance sector possesses the most sensitive data, including credit card details and other information. Thankfully, there is an abundance of research available to combat these breaches, and it is worth looking into these.

Technology advances at an accelerating rate, and so too does the importance of remaining on top of these advances. For example, you might need to begin learning about artificial intelligence (AI) or Cloud services. With this in mind, the following includes a simple upskilling guide to get you started.

75% of banks are making investments in building tech to satisfy a customer-centric business model.

Source: PwC Retail Banking 2020 Survey

1. Training

A number of courses are available to schedule novel skills fundamental to employees in financial services.

These needn’t be arduous courses and can be simple resources focused on microlearning.

2. Mentoring

Subordinates learn a lot from their supervisors and managers, and it may be worth offering shadowing practises from those individuals more experienced with technological services. This provides for a collaborative stance toward upskilling and practised within the setting the employee needs to apply their new skills.

3. Peer-to-peer

This form of learning stems from mentoring, however, typically appears in different ways such as team-led projects and workshops.

4. Financial support

Sometimes, upskilling requires certification from professional entities that offer expensive courses. If the skills your organisation requires are less readily available, it may be worth considering financial support for employees needing the training.