Research from leading recruitment specialist, Robert Half Financial Services, has revealed 52% of financial services leaders have implemented blockchain due to the ability to facilitate transactions combined with the speed and cost benefits. Nearly a third (30%) are planning to invest in blockchain in the future and 14% admit they should be considering investment despite having no plans for it at the moment.
As the appetite for blockchain grows, so is the demand for people with the right skills to maximise the technology. Organisations are seeking out financial services professionals with a deep understanding of the principles surrounding blockchain systems listing technology trading (51%) and programming (47%) as the skills most in demand.
| Skills | Skills that will become more important from blockchain |
| Trading-technology | 51% |
| Programming | 47% |
| Analytics | 44% |
| Portfolio-management | 43% |
| Trading | 32% |
| Cryptography | 29% |
| Database-Management | 27% |
| Business-development | 19% |
Overall, 85 per cent of financial services executives believe blockchain will have made a genuine impact on the financial services industry by 2022. Those that have implemented blockchain report already experiencing benefits including empowered users (54%), increased transparency (54%) and faster transactions (42%). While respondents that have not yet experimented with blockchain see the opportunity that it offers to achieve faster transactions (52%), lower transaction costs (44%) and user empowerment (42%).
‘Automation is changing the face of business, and particuarly so within the skills and roles within the financial services industry,” explained Matt Weston, Director at Robert Half Financial Services. “With financial crime and compliance high on the priority lists for many senior leaders in financial services, attracting skilled specialists to support the implantation is key. To keep up with the rapidly changing skill and role development, companies who adopt a flexible recruitment strategy will be best placed to adapt their resource requirements during this change.‘
