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June 23, 2021Posted by : Career Topper Content TeamNo Comments

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the social as well as professional lives of individuals. Everyone is talking about the ‘new normal’ and yet nobody is sure as to what the future might hold. Industrial sectors that have been hit the most, and which can still be severely impacted further, would be those that impact day-to-day life. One such sector is the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (“BFSI”) sector.

Work from Home:

As per Order No. 40 of the MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs), only people providing essential services could continue working normally with applicable social distancing rules. Banks and the Reserve Bank of India were operating with “bare minimum staff”, to encourage Work from Home. This has shown positive results as well.

As per a Survey held by the Times of India:

52% of the people believe that their office commute gave them the time to prepare for their work.

78% of the people seem to miss their coffee breaks and working with their colleagues.

66% of employees feel that their productivity has increased, while working from home.

55% of employees feel that working from home has helped them balance personal and professional life better.

Reasons why work from home is preferred:

Eliminating long commute and associated costs

Reducing staff attrition

Attracting better talent

Profitable Freelancing

Independence of location, as people living in remote areas can also work

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and pollution on a large scale

Increased flexibility

Upcoming Career Opportunities:

Post-pandemic, traditional jobs at banks like tellers, clerks, etc. will likely be reduced by increased use of automation tools and online banking services. However, with a positive demographic and growth outlook, traditional jobs lost in the financial sector are not estimated to outweigh the new roles to be created. We believe that there will be a great demand for skill-based professionals, with skills that transcend easily automatable tasks like data entry, data collection and analytics. Today, traditional workers should be prepared to up skill and learn to perform complex analytics, using Artificial Intelligence tools. More importantly, finance professionals should be able to build their personal brand and possess soft skills such as interpersonal skills, building social media presence, networking, personal branding and emotional skills. Soft skills are something that automation tools will not be able to replicate or replace.

Accenture reports state that financial services companies which keep step with each other in early adoption of AI (“Artificial Intelligence”) tools can see their revenue increase by 34% by 2022. For those seeking employment within the financial services world, it's critical to gauge a prospective employer's duties and commitments to technological innovation.

The Financial Technology (“FinTech”) space also will see marked growth. Potential future job titles would be “finance engineer” and “sustainable wealth manager”. There is great scope for growth of highly trained professionals providing personalized financial services, such as Asset Management and Financial Planning. Independent Financial Advisors, seeking registration with SEBI, should be ready to translate data into meaningful stories and supply top-notch customer service. Wall Street Journal stated that labour-intensive tasks like budgeting and forecasting will increasingly be handled by AI and automation tools, freeing up time and energy for financial advisors to supply meaningful, data-driven insights.

As per the Bureau of Labour Statistics, the overall “financial managers” category of jobs can witness a 16% growth through 2028. Much of this growth depends on tech-savvy individuals who are prepared to adapt to technological advances within the BFSI industry.

Transition in Some of the Existing Financial Services

Portfolio Management

Portfolio Managers are liable to seek Best Execution for their client portfolios, as per risk-return objective of their clients. The pandemic has led to potential halt of physical meetings with portfolio managers, making it worse for the people who are technically disabled. Career opportunities over here will be to bring innovation into this field through automation.

Risk Management

Risk management professionals are competent in identifying market risks and recognizing poor investment outcomes. Using their mathematical prowess and analytical reasoning skills, they advise their clients on various business matters. Upcoming enthusiasts should be aware of the technologies that have brought a transition in risk management such as Big Data, Analytics, Mobile Operations, Cloud Computing, etc.

Data Analytics

Data analysts works with sizable amount of data sets on business operations, customers, revenues, returns, etc. Using such data sets, data analysts should be able to make meaning recommendations and suggest a plan of action to their clients and businesses. This process includes data collection being done completely online. Aspirants looking for a career opportunity in Data Anlytics should be well aware of different programming languages, such as Python, R studio etc.

Investment Banking

The main role of an investment bank is to help companies, governments and other market participants in raising capital. Post COVID-19, remote workplace setup will continue and will be preferred for a longer period of time. Machines will undertake the operation of risk management and the industry will seek to adopt digital technologies for efficient back-office management. Cloud services will be preferred by merchant bankers, to ensure data protection and perform client-reporting services.

Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has acted like a precursor to opening up new ways to conduct routine jobs using new technology and created opportunities to work on jobs requiring more specialized skills, within the BFSI sector. The post-pandemic era will witness noticeable differences in occupations and potential job roles for young aspirants. The BFSI sector is expected to come out strong from the pandemic and evolve itself as a complete tech-based services industry, by the end of it.