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NEWS
Banks expect major skills shortage as candidates flock to tech giants
F
our-fifths of IT managers in major retail banks believe that there will be a skills crisis by the year 2022, according to research from Peru Consulting.
The study, which surveyed 100 IT professionals in banks, as well as 1,000 consumers, found that almost half of technologists in retail banks expect Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple (GAFA) to steal the best talent.
The tech giants are a far greater threat to retail banking than even fintech start-ups, which were only cited by 37% of respondents as a concern.
It might be difficult to entice new graduates to the banking sector, too, as a third of those asked said their technology was under-funded and out of date. Banks, according to the survey, are struggling to keep up, let alone lead the pack.
“The banking market in recent years has seen an explosion of new entrants, with brands offering exciting cultures and ways of working,” said Ashley Pick, principal consultant at Peru Consulting. “In many cases, suppliers or acquisitions have been used to fill the skills gap.”
Gail Danvers, director of PSD’s banking and financial services operations, added: “The banks are experiencing an identity crisis
Finding new skilled staff is getting harder for banks
that’s having an impact on talent attraction. This is partly due to the negativity associated with banking following the credit crunch, but culture also plays a big part.”
Previous research from Peru Consulting found that as soon as GAFA start to offer banking services, more than a third (36%) of consumers would consider switching to them, rising to half (50%) among 25 – 34 year olds.
UAE Islamic banks renewing their focus
I
slamic banking is experiencing a downturn in one of its heartland markets. Consumers in the UAE were 10% less likely to select an Islamic product over a traditional alternative in the first half of 2017. Applications for Islamic personal finance also dropped by 22% in the same period.
The data, from comparison site
yallacompare.com, shows how conventional banks have nabbed customer attention when it comes to personal loans and auto loans. Traditional lenders saw a 65% year-on-year increase in applications for car loans and a 35% increase in personal loan applications.
Despite this lull, UAE customers are gravitating towards Islamic banks when it comes to the provision of credit cards. The first half
of 2017 saw an increase of 46% in applications for Islamic cards, compared to an 8% decline for the traditional counterpart.
“This fits in with the strategies that many Islamic banks in the UAE laid out at the beginning of the year,” said Samer Chehab, COO of yallacompare. “To ride out the liquidity crunch caused by the drop in oil prices, many UAE banks pivoted their focus away from unsecured finance, and Islamic banks, bound by regulation to avoid risky investments, embraced this strategy wholeheartedly.”
He added: “As the UAE economy continues to successfully diversify away from oil, and as business confidence picks up ahead of Expo 2020, we expect Islamic banks to renew their focus on personal finance.”
www.ibsintelligence.com | © IBS Intelligence 2017
Vgalic/iStock
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