Vanesa Jimenez never thought when she was studying Mathematics that she would end up working in a bank. What the Director of Analytical Transformation at SABIS, Banco Sabadell’s technological subsidiary, does recognize is that studying a technical degree has provided her with tools and a way of thinking that can be applied to any industry or sector. Jimenez’s entire professional career has revolved around data, a parameter that, today, has become a way of creating value for the financial sector. “We work so that decisions are based on something quantitative” , explains this professional, one of the thousands of workers with a STEM (Science, Technology, Enginering and Mathematics) profile.that have been incorporated into the financial sector in recent years. This is an unstoppable trend, which will intensify in the future, and which marks a new roadmap in the Human Resources and talent management departments of banks.
One of the main challenges facing the finance sector is, without a doubt, the digital transformation, accelerated after the pandemic caused by COVID-19. Banks have to be prepared to efficiently serve the new demand channels. And it is that they are no longer the only agents that provide financial services. Fintech and BigTech are showing them a new path of how to do things, something that will require new skills and abilities . According to a recent analysis carried out by Von Rundstedt and Arbeitgeber Banken, 20% of the positions that banks currently demand are linked precisely to new technologiesof information, such as data analysis or risk management based on data. Although customer-related jobs are still the most requested, if activities related to this area are added, which the sector has traditionally outsourced, technology would already be the most sought-after profile, as revealed in the report prepared by Funcas «The future of Banking Jobs”.
bank engineers
Traditionally, it has been said that engineers are often the best bankers. Angel Corcostegui, the former CEO of Banco Santander, or the former president of Banco Central Hispano, Claudio Boada, were civil and industrial engineers, respectively. Nevertheless, they were “rare birds” in the financial world, which was teeming with economists and lawyers. However, what was an exception years ago has become the norm today.
At Banco Sabadell, for example, 55% of the new hires are STEM professionals. Josep Armengou, Selection Director of the entity , considers that banks, in some way, are becoming software and information companies, and to adapt to this new reality, the knowledge and skills of STEM profiles are key. “The intensive use of information technology has become widespread in all areas, which represents an opportunity both to satisfy customers and to gain efficiency and productivity by automating processes. In our case, it makes it possible to consolidate a digital banking model that makes the concept of omnichannel effective, where it is no longer a question of operating from different channels to distribute products, but of putting the customer at the center and allowing him or her to decide flexible when, from where and through which channels you want to interact with Banco Sabadell. The motto that reflects and catalyzes this reality is “Be where you are” », he explains.
For Santiago Carbo, director of the Funcas Financial Digitization Observatory, we are witnessing a change in profile in the recruitment of talent by financial entities. “Banks have always been important centers of technological operations, so there have always been mathematicians or computer scientists on their staff. What is happening now is that they have to reinforce aspects that they did not have before, such as Artificial Intelligence, to make their operations much easier, such as fintech. In this way, they are turning to direct service, either by creating an app or managing data,” says Carbo.
Bank employment PHOTO: Antonio Cruz
Andrea Falcon studied Mathematics at the University of Santiago de Compostela. Also a Master in Business Management from the School of Industrial Organization, he is, today, one of the 11,000 professionals with STEM profiles who work in the BBVA Group , which represents approximately 10% of its total workforce. In Spain, they have about 260 data scientists ; while some 1,500 employees work in the Engineering area , the majority being developers with tasks dedicated to software development and application maintenance.
Ophelie Richard, Global Head of Talent Acquisition at BBVA, attributes this phenomenon to the transformation that the financial industry is undergoing. «The search for profiles other than the traditional ones (financers, economists, administrators) has increased significantly in recent years, now competing for talent with companies of all kinds, especially with technology companies. At BBVA, we have been pioneers in transforming the financial industry and this has led us to strive to attract and develop the talent we need for an increasingly digital business. We have been working for years to attract profiles linked to technology. This includes data scientists, software engineers, or cybersecurity specialists,” says Richard.
Interest in studying
Professionals have also realized the high employability that the financial sector offers them and, increasingly, they are interested in completing their training with master’s degrees and postgraduate degrees specialized in finance. Juan giphy.com Abellan, director of the Master of Markets and professor of the Master of Digital Finance at IEB, confirms this interest. «Before the engineer was the weirdo of the class. Now it’s completely normal.” At this time, up to 15% of the students who attend the classes taught by Abellan are mathematicians, physicists, engineers, architects and even biochemists. «The way of thinking of these professionals is more analytical than that of an economist or a lawyer, which makes them have good aptitudes for the world of banking, not only from a technological point of view, but also from a commercial perspective». And it is that marketing or customer management has also changed, so banks need more and more employees to adapt to the new demands of society.
“The trend to close physical branches is promoting other channels, fundamentally online, so digital profiles are demanded that adapt to customers and services that are also customers,” adds Abellan.
What I like the most
Coty de Monteverde is the director of Grupo Santander’s Crypto & Blockchain Center of Excellence. She is a Superior Telecommunications Engineer from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, she completed her last year and her final year project at the University of Stuttgart.
Upon finishing his studies, he began his professional career staying in the telecommunications sector, specifically in strategic consulting, since he wanted to complete his technical knowledge with a business vision. He then began to collaborate on initiatives that had a more financial component, and he realized that it was an area that he needed to strengthen. This was the main reason that later led her to work at the bank. She assures that, after 13 years, she is very satisfied, since she has been able to see the business from many perspectives, participating in innovative initiatives with various areas and geographies and experiencing digital transformation at the forefront. «I have been given the opportunity to dedicate myself to what I like the https://www.indiegogo.com/individuals/29655198 most, which is technological innovation,specifically to the application of emerging technologies to the financial business (such as blockchain), which has allowed me to be a participant in some of the most disruptive projects in the financial industry» , he highlights.
At Banco Santander’s Corporate Center, approximately one in three employees hired this year are so-called digital profiles , having been incorporated into all divisions, although the main destination areas have been Technology and Operations, having to do their activity fundamentally with cloud computing or data analytics.
From the entity, they consider that serving an increasingly technological client requires signing technical profiles, but they are also promoting the training of their employees so that they can adapt to the digital challenge. Upskilling and reskillingThese are two strategies that the financial entity has implemented to adapt and recycle professional profiles, reinforcing their digital skills so that they are better adapted to the needs of the market and the group. While the first seeks to teach the worker new skills, the second, also known as professional recycling, seeks to adapt employees to new positions in the company. In this sense, Santander is evolving in the offer of its scholarship program to offer new opportunities and increase the professional training of its teams.
digital dna
Bankinter created its Digital Banking division in 2016 to respond to the speed of technological change. Today, five years later, the commitment to innovation and digitization is in its DNA. That is why multidisciplinary teams (with technological and analytical profiles) are essential in an activity as competitive as banking . Computer engineering, telecommunications, analytics, big data, cybersecurity or mathematics are the courses most in demand at Bankinter today.
In the last three years (2018, 2019 and 2020), the bank has hired 150 people with academic profiles or STEM work experience , out of a total of 769 hires, and this year they continue to incorporate these types of professionals. “The figure is important, https://www.mixcloud.com/dorsonnfgu/ especially due to the size of our workforce, which, in Spain, amounts to some 5,300 employees,” underlines the bank led by Maria Dolores Dancausa.
Caixabank also wants to strengthen its technological areas. To this end, it announced last week that it will strengthen its subsidiary Caixabank Tech , of which Telecommunications engineer Rosa Martinez is Artificial Intelligence Manager. The idea is to integrate most of the group’s specialized technology and systems teams into it. Likewise, it plans to reorganize the subsidiary to facilitate the attraction and retention of talent.
With this first phase of internal transformation, Caixabank will reach 800 employees and, in the medium term, will begin to incorporate new professionals, mainly young people with training in scientific fields, so that their number rises to a thousand.
CaixaBank already has numerous highly specialized profiles in various technologies and roles, both in the bank and in group companies, where there is room for a wide range of STEM knowledge. In total, around 2,000 people with this academic background work in the group.
The entity will also encourage its technological experts to participate in innovation events such as hackathons, online challenges, webinars, mentorships… The objective is to share internal knowledge with the environment as a way of promoting innovation and attracting talent.
Recently, Kutxabank has signed 56 new professionals, whose profiles are adapted to the demands of this new bank. Through this latest selection process, Kutxabank wanted to cover positions for qualified personnel, which is why a part of the young people incorporated have training in mathematics and engineering. In addition, a very high percentage of the accessions, seven out of ten, are women.
In this way, digitization, cybersecurity, data analysis and quality, implementation of models for calculating provisions and capital requirements, are joining other areas of the strictly financial field, such as market analysis, investment strategies.
Risk Measurement
In this context, Unicaja Banco also highlights the incorporation of professional profiles related to big data, such as data analysts, scientists and architects, to gather, select and interpret large amounts of information, so that the entity can take it into account in their decisions and strategies. Likewise, the analysis and measurement of credit risk is essential, so it is essential to use the appropriate models. Thus, these profiles are mainly assigned to the IT and Technology, Credit Risk, Digital Transformation, Marketing and Social Media areas.. “The fundamental functions of these professionals are to implement the bank’s technological strategy; development of projects that allow us to anticipate the needs of our clients in order to provide them with the best service; predict certain situations and behaviors, anticipating responses to user needs, or defining new architectures that allow improving and optimizing the main customer entry channels (web, app, mobile), providing greater performance. They also implement the necessary technological infrastructure to support the current and future needs of the bank, and maintain a technological environment that protects the interests of the bank and customers,” Unicaja Banco sources indicate.
Thus, in an increasingly competitive context, in which the sector needs to improve its profitability and efficiency, mathematics and science have definitely assaulted the financial system, drawing a new horizon and another way of doing things. .
