Wall Street Sends 'Love Calls' to IT Experts... But Talent Escapes to Fintech

High Salaries and Increased Preference for Flexible Work After COVID-19

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] While leading financial firms in the US and UK are aggressively hiring technology experts for digital transformation, it has been revealed that these highly valued tech professionals are actually moving to the fintech industry, which offers greater work flexibility.

According to Bloomberg on the 6th (local time), Jonathan Lofthouse, Head of Market and Corporate Risk Technology at Citigroup, said in an interview, "We are trying to digitize many aspects of the customer experience," and that more than 1,000 technology experts will join the market technology team. He added that Citigroup plans to hire a total of over 4,000 technology positions for institutional clients, including this.

Lofthouse explained, "During sudden lockdowns, everyone had to do everything digitally, from grocery deliveries to watching Netflix," and added, "We have always seen the technology market as competitive, but especially now, as we emerge from the pandemic, we are witnessing an explosive digital demand across all sectors."

Citigroup’s move comes amid a wave of global financial institutions, including Wall Street, upgrading their technology platforms. Citigroup announced in March that it spent $10 billion last year, increasing technology-related expenses by 10%, and Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, said last month that amid shareholder scrutiny over the bank’s costs, he wants to complete all technological aspects.

The problem is that although the demand for technology experts in the financial sector is high, these professionals are moving to fintech companies. According to recent data released by job information company Revelio Labs, the number of employees moving from traditional financial firms like Goldman Sachs and HSBC to fintech companies such as Coinbase and Revolut reached 72 in March, the highest monthly figure since 2011. Revelio Labs stated this represents a 75% increase since the pandemic.

Specifically, from January 2020 to last April, 37 employees from Goldman Sachs moved to Coinbase, another 21 Goldman Sachs employees joined US fintech company Brex, and 18 moved to SoFi Technologies, an online fintech company listed on Nasdaq last year. Additionally, 28 Morgan Stanley employees moved to Coinbase, 38 HSBC employees joined Revolut, and Monzo, a UK fintech startup often called the British KakaoBank, hired 21 former HSBC employees, 32 from Lloyd Banking Group, and 27 from Barclays.

This wave of employee transitions is interpreted as reflecting the preferences of tech experts for high salaries and flexible work arrangements after the pandemic. Lisa Simon, an economist at Revelio, told Bloomberg, "People paused and reevaluated what is important in their lives," analyzing that these decisions were likely made considering work-life balance, wage increases, and excellent career prospects.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.