In the coming months and years, you will hear a lot about fin-tech, short for financial technology. Broadly speaking, fin-tech is a new technology which is designed to improve and automate the delivery and use of financial services from digital money to double-entry bookkeeping. It is utilized to help companies, business owners and consumers better manage their financial operations, processes, and lives by using specialized software and algorithms that are used on computers and, increasingly, smartphones.
It was once considered more of a back-end, data centre processing platform. Only in recent years, it has come to be known as the basis for end-to-end processing of transactions over the internet via cloud services. It has been around virtually in one form or other, as long as financial services have. Only after the global financial crisis of 2008 fin-tech has advanced to disrupt and reshape commerce, payments, investment, asset management, insurance, clearance and settlement of securities and even money itself with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
Why Fin-Tech a Leader in Job Creation in the UK
1. In 2018, the recruitment into fin-tech, as a result, was soaring. The job creation in this sector is still far behind banking, but it won’t be long when it overtakes the banking sector in job creation as the growth is significant. The industry created 61% more vacancies in 2018 compared to 2017, making it the fastest-growing sector in the UK economy. The extension was also felt at the regional level, where job creation increased by 18% last year according to data from various recruitment firms.
2. The UK has 25% of all fin-tech unicorns, and their growth plans call for more talent. London headquarters 7 out of the 29 fin-tech unicorns worldwide, making it second only behind San Francisco, which is home to nine.
3. It was noted that London’s fin-tech sector received more Venture Capital (VC) funding than any other EU city in 2018, securing 39% of all European fin-tech funding. Berlin’s fin-tech sector lagged slightly, achieving 21% of the cash, while Paris came in third with 18% of the overall funding.
4. The demand for IT professionals, in particular, is significant. Over 30% of Jobs in the UK’s fin-tech industry are for IT-related roles, compared with 24% in 2017. And fin-tech hiring for IT Professionals increased 74% year-over-year ( YOY). The surge in parts for IT talent comes as no surprise given fin-techs’ focus on digital capabilities and innovation.
With the growing demand in fin-tech there are lots of new challenges and lots of competition, knowing just coding or finding data is the necessary skills required for fin-tech but if you want to be that one in the tenth guy/girl who knows the best of both worlds, i.e. accounting and coding. At Future Connect Training and Recruitment, we provide training for anyone who wants to make their career in the financial sector which is also one of the primary skills required in fin-tech industries.
At Future Connect Training and Recruitment, our aim is to help people get jobs and train individuals to land their dream jobs. FC training and recruitment plans to put job seekers first, giving them free access for jobs and post CVs. Every day we connect and train thousands of people to new opportunities.