Mr Ravi Menon, Chairman of Institute of Banking and Finance, Managing Director of Monetary Authority of Singapore made a speech today on the future of jobs in the Finance Sector, and the main focus of this speech was how technology would transform jobs in the future. He spoke at the launch of a study by Ernst & Young to study the impact of data analytics and automation – the two most immediate technologies – on jobs in the financial sector. This study was commissioned by Monetary Authority Singapore and the Institute of Banking and Finance.
Technology is transforming the financial industry
He said that “looking to the future, the jobs and skills landscape in the financial industry is a lot more complex and uncertain. Technology is transforming finance – the way financial services are produced, distributed, and consumed. This means that jobs in financial services will also be transformed.”
“We need to take a more sophisticated, integrated, and purposeful approach to prepare our workforce for the future of jobs. This is why MAS and IBF commissioned a study on the impact of technologies on jobs in the financial sector.”
It reviewed 121 distinct job roles in the financial industry, examining how data analytics and automation are likely to change the individual tasks in these 121 job roles. It identified the additional skills that would be necessary to perform these new tasks. The study took nine months to complete and the findings have been validated extensively with more than 80 industry participants.
Mr Ravi Menon said “I want to make three key points that I think are worth keeping in mind: First, the biggest impact of technology is to transform jobs rather than to destroy existing ones or create new ones. Second, our strategy to help finance professionals must address skills, jobs, and careers in an integrated manner. Third, workforce transformation must become a core business capability for all financial institutions.”
Study finds technology will enhance roles in the finance sector
The Study found that data analytics and automation will augment one out of two job roles in the financial sector. In other words, workers will be able to deliver over and beyond what would traditionally be expected. While some rules-based tasks will be automated, data analytics and automation will amplify the importance of tasks requiring human judgement.
The study also finds that one out of three job roles will be heavily transformed. This means that a proportion of tasks within these jobs will be substituted using data analytics and automation, and the remaining tasks will converge into new job roles that require more judgement, customisation and creativity. In some other cases, most of the tasks could become automated and these job roles could be displaced.
“This means that a proportion of tasks within these jobs will be substituted using data analytics and automation, and the remaining tasks will converge into new job roles that require more judgement, customisation and creativity.” said Mr Menon
Mr Menon added “The key take-away from all this: focus on tasks that will be affected by data analytics and identify the skills necessary to perform these new tasks.”
