FinTech innovation is driven by developers, data scientists, product managers and other tech talent working behind the scenes to create the future of banking and financial services. A major challenge in the FinTech industry is that companies must compete with native technology companies and banking and financial services companies for a limited pool of qualified talent. The high demand for FinTech talent can be gauged by the fact that the financial services company Capital One had more technology job postings than IT companies in June 2022. The new job postings were in addition to the 3,000 software engineers that the company had hired in the previous year.
The top talents in demand within the FinTech industry are product development and management professionals. The high demand and low supply of technology talent have limited the average tenure of developers within FinTech companies. The average tenure of FinTech talent ranges from 18 months to two years, with senior talent averaging about three years.
In a talent-starved market with more jobs than available professionals, companies must creatively leverage all available avenues to ensure their talent requirements are met on time. The availability of qualified talent on time is so crucial that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) launched FinTech Career Accelerator Scheme ("FCAS"), a talent development program. The challenges in FinTech are not limited to sourcing and hiring the right talent but also ensuring fast onboarding since the best candidates are off the market in 10 days. As finance is a regulated industry, FinTech businesses cannot overlook the quality and credentials of hired candidates; hence, a reliable employee screening and background check process are essential.
With FinTech talent demand continuing to rise, the talent acquisition teams have been exploring alternative channels to address FinTech recruitment challenges. FinTech companies have followed non-traditional routes as a solution to their FinTech recruitment challenges.
As technology talent demand exceeds supply, traditional sources of tech talent, like top-ranked universities with computer science courses, are not the only preferred source for FinTech companies. Companies are tapping other learning institutions offering professionals trained in specialized skills. According to HackerRank, there is sufficient availability of candidates with requisite skills for FinTech outside of brand-name computer science programs such as the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
The trend will likely get accelerated as companies are dispensing the need for a college degree in their efforts to diversify talent sourcing and increase diversity within their organization.
Boot camp hiring has emerged as a dependable source of talent acquisition across the technology industry, including FinTech. Some boot camps are focused on specialized skills such as cybersecurity, which ensures that the qualifications of candidates are no less than those from established institutions.
Although the talent acquisition teams in regulated industries such as FinTech are skeptical about the quality and credentials of qualified boot camp applicants, the camps will be an important source of skilled product developers. For example, the coding boot camp offers ready-to-deploy developers for entry-level positions. FinTech can utilize the services of an experienced employee screening provider to ensure that candidates have the right credentials regardless of where they are sourced..
A majority of software developers work from home, with 86% currently working entirely remotely. As developers prefer remote work, FinTech companies are creating teams by hiring resources from across the globe. The option to hire global talent not only helps companies bridge the talent shortfall but also helps them lower costs.
As part of the "FinTech 2025" strategy, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) launched the Industry Project Masters Network (IPMN) scheme to groom FinTech talent by facilitating industry training for postgraduate students. Launched in September 2022, the scheme aims to create industry-ready professionals by providing students with hands-on experience and skills.
Pre-employment screening and background reference checks are particularly important in banking and financial services, considering the sensitivity of data and the volume of money being handled by the institutions. It helps to prevent companies from crimes and the resultant regulatory actions due to fraudulent actions by a rogue employee.
Background screening in the FinTech sector includes mandatory checks, and depending on the scope of the role, specific checks are required. Eight mandatory checks are required for employees of FinTech, including skilled product developers.
It is not unusual to find discrepancies in candidates' claimed credentials and actual status. Based on Veremark analysis of discrepancies found during the background checks of candidates, the top five discrepancies reported in banking and financial services, including FinTech, are as follows:
Proof that it is essential to screen all candidates to ensure that only qualified candidates with the right credentials are hired.
An ID check uses social identity documents such as passports or driving licenses to confirm an individual’s identity and demographics. This check is a legal requirement in most regions of the world and is necessary to meet Anti-money laundering (AML) standards in financial services. It helps prevent impersonators from becoming employees of the company.
Civil litigation history helps to determine whether the candidate the company is considering hiring has any past claims against them that may affect their work performance or could introduce potential liability for the company. It is essential to prevent a negative impact on the company due to an individual's past civil claims.
This check verifies the candidate's academic qualifications and authenticity, the validity of professional membership, and other professional credentials. This check verifies if a candidate's degree, diploma, or certificate is valid and is from an accredited institution.
The check ensures that a candidate's education credentials meet the FinTech job requirements. It is also done to ensure that a person is not using someone else's credentials to obtain a position for which they are not qualified.
This check examines a candidate's credit history, establishing whether the prospective employee is a fiscally responsible person. The information is sourced from recognized and reputable credit bureaus that collect and store data about a person's credit history.
Employees in this industry must be fiscally prudent to hold a responsible position within a FinTech company to help reduce the risk of violating rules or regulations.
The reference check assesses the candidate's previous work performance and evaluates qualities such as professional competencies, skills, attitude, interpersonal relationships, and collaboration ability.
The reference check helps validate the candidate's suitability for the role based on past performance.
The Global Sanction Check searches international government databases to identify people sanctioned to work in certain roles or sectors. The global sanctions checks help ensure companies don’t hire someone that has global sanctions or that has been barred from conducting financial transactions.
Criminal history checks looks into an individual's criminal record. It helps the employer ascertain if the candidate could be a potential risk to the company's customers or other employees, which is of critical importance for a FinTech company.
Financial regulations checks help uncover any disciplinary actions or sanctions from the financial regulatory body in a specified country or countries. It helps ensure candidates can legally conduct their job duties.
Veremark's alliance with Notchup will enable FinTech organisations to hire skilled, qualified product development talent to scale their technology team.
Notchup is a platform dedicated to helping you find the right talent to scale your tech teams. The platform offers FinTech access to a global pool of vetted and verified talent who can be hired and onboarded in a few days. FinTechs can source talented professionals from high-tech disciplines —including devs, tech leads, designers, product managers, and data scientists. The companies can assemble and help manage teams remotely through one single platform.
Veremark’s digitized employment screening and reference check platform enables FinTech companies to efficiently screen candidates for all mandatory and optional checks. The solution leverages automation to optimize turnaround times, enabling employers to save 2 to 3 days on the front-end set-up and back-end delivery.
The Veremark Verepass Career Passport also enables FinTechs to receive confirmed career credentials of experts or specialists hired on contract. It allows companies to hire candidates from anywhere in the world and helps HR professionals improve hiring and onboarding efficiency. With the average tenure of the FinTech talent being short, employees change jobs frequently, and Verepass helps FinTech companies save time by avoiding repeat verifications.
Zilch FinTech case study:
Zilch is a rapidly growing financial technology company based in London, UK. Veremark & Notchup have helped Zilch with pre-employment screening and skilled technical hiring, as its employee base increased from 35 in December 2020 to 180 in October 2021. Veremark and Notchup have ensured that Zilch is compliant with UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Veremark ensured that they covered all required checks while enabling them to expedite candidate onboarding and optimize candidate experience.
INCLUDE A GRAPHIC FROM ZILCH HERE?
FinTechs can work immediately with Veremark and Notchup, and benefit from the alliance for more rapid, effective software/product developer hiring. The streamlined onboarding process through the Veremark employee screening platform and the Notchup hiring and team management platform, helps to improve the candidate experience and improve hiring and business effectiveness.
