IIM Calcutta’s FinTech Programme is making great strides in the country, helping professionals seamlessly change their careers from traditional banking and finance to FinTech. Since it’s inception, over 300 participants working with 170+ top companies like NABARD, PwC India, Goldman Sachs, National Insurance, Societe Generale, Standard Chartered, SBI, and many more have attended this programme and transformed their career.

Today, some are leading FinTech projects in their company, some embarked on an entrepreneurial journey, while some others accelerated their career with new roles in organizations with their FinTech capabilities.

Of them, we bring to you the experience of Amit Tyagi, Business Development (South Asia), MasterCard. A former Standard Chartered Bank professional, Amit found his calling in the “Payments” sector after attending the FinTech Programme.

An ardent retail banker, Amit was skeptical if traditional banking background can maximize his success in the FinTech industry. But after setting himself up for this intensive learning journey, he landed his aspirational FinTech job with MasterCard.  He recalls how his greatest learning came from Peer interaction, Group assignments, and Capstone projects.

Meet Amit Tyagi and discover how he landed his dream role in FinTech with IIM Calcutta’s FinTech Programme.

TalentSprint and IIM Calcutta’s Advanced Programme in FinTech and Financial Blockchain helps professionals build relevant expertise that can lead a traditional BFSI organization into the new era of FinTech. The Programme is best suited for professionals in Banking, Consulting, Financial Services, Insurance, Management, and Technology, who want to be at the forefront of the FinTech Revolution and wish to lead FinTech initiatives in their organization or want to start their own.

If you are keen on deep-diving into FinTech and highly motivated to ride this FinTech wave, this programme is the one you should be looking for, to tap that opportunity.

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Boom times for FinTech in India

According to the findings from a study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and FICCI, Indian FinTech companies are poised to become three times as valuable in the next five years, reaching a USD 150-160 billion valuation by 2025. 67% of over 2,100 FinTechs have sprung up just in the last five years. The segment has attracted massive investments, with India emerging as Asia’s most prominent destination for FinTech deals. Increased awareness, government policies, quick onboarding and ease of use, smartphone proliferation and internet expansion, regulatory support, and improved technology are key factors driving rapid Fintech adoption.

Experts share their exciting views on India’s FinTech revolution

So how are professionals gearing up for FinTech?

Innovation, rapid transformation and staggering growth in India’s FinTech space is creating massive opportunities for entrepreneurs and professionals. For several of them, getting into the FinTech industry is not just about vital niche technology skills such as app development. There are other solutions they need to offer an organization to be considered as their next FinTech expert. This entails knowing about public cloud technologies, data science and delving deeper into the realm of machine learning and artificial intelligence. 

Can you get into FinTech without programming knowledge?

Yes indeed. You can build a successful career in FinTech without programming or coding knowledge. Even if you are a non-tech professional, having programming knowledge is not crucial to start and lead FinTech projects. Coding is mainly employed to create new software or change the way things function currently. These changes can be done through programmers. 

Then, what capabilities do you need to build a career in FinTech? 

Organizations in the FinTech industry are constantly looking for expert professionals to fill in critical roles. FinTech professionals don’t really need deep tech knowledge to make it in the field. They require substantial familiarity with the workings of the different underlying technologies to use them for FinTech innovations. 

Some of the important capabilities required to build a career in FinTech include. 

• Blockchain: The expansion of the cryptocurrency industry can be connected to the increasing demand for blockchain experts. As per a LinkedIn study, blockchain was the most in-demand job skill in 2020. With new blockchain solutions being introduced to financial institutions at a growing rate, FinTech professionals need a strong familiarity with its inner workings. 

• Cybersecurity: The development of the online financial services industry has increased the risk of cyber crime, and the startups in FinTech are particularly more vulnerable to these threats. Therefore, cybersecurity professionals are needed to prevent data loss and protect a company’s reputation. FinTech professionals must work along with cybersecurity professionals in the areas of risk management, encryption methods, and digital communication technologies, among others.

“Cybersecurity is critical for the success of digital banking and banks should create the infrastructure to win customers’ trust for all such transactions.”
Ravindra Pandey
Deputy MD and Chief Digital Officer
State Bank of India

• Data Science: The analysis and interpretation of data become crucial in redefining financial services. Data Science yet again relies on machine learning, deep learning, big data, and artificial intelligence. Data science experts analyze the data and provide recommendations and solutions on how data can improve the current services.
• Analytics and Communication: Analytical capabilities will help you grow much further in the FinTech industry. Being able to dissect the problem and coming up with viable solutions is critical expertise. Communication skills are valued in this field, too, because you will have to communicate your ideas to your fellow team members and stakeholders who may not be familiar with the new FinTech landscape. 

What’s the way forward for FinTech professionals?

Tapping into promising career opportunities in the FinTech space entails having an in-depth understanding of how FinTech works and deep expertise. To develop such an understanding and expertise, one needs hands-on learning. That’s why IIM Calcutta and TalentSprint, offer a uniquely designed six-month Advanced Programme in FinTech and Financial Blockchain (APFFB) for professionals in banking, consulting, financial services, insurance, management, and technology, who want to tap into opportunities and shape their careers in the FinTech space. It’s a faculty-led interactive Live online programme with a well-researched curriculum that fosters hands-on learning. The programme has completed 3 cohorts with 450+ participants currently working with 170+ top companies.

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• Core banking technologies
• Decentralized systems
• Alternative and instant KYC mediums
• Chatbots for customer service
• Intelligent processes
• Automated functions
• Smart contract-based banking offerings and systems
• Personalized products
• Customer-life-cycle technologies
• Robo-advisory tools
• Hyper-personalization technologies
• Biometrics Identity Management
• RPA–Robotic Process Automation and
• Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing.

The tech impact on the BFSI sector 

FinTech has redefined the industry beyond recognition. It has wiped away long queues, manual exhaustion, bureaucratic fatigue, and process-delays. FinTech has leveraged Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, and Cloud in such a pervasive and swift way that it has cut costs and created new revenues.

As per the PwC Global FinTech Report 2019, 48 percent of Financial Services organizations have embedded FinTech fully into their strategic operating model, while 37 percent of Financial Services organizations have incorporated emerging technologies into the products and services they sell. These developments raise a few questions. 

• Where does this change leave the senior Finance professionals, though? 
• What about all the skills and knowledge they have amassed and polished in all these decades before FinTech shook the sector? 
• Should they be looking for new roles? 
• Should they switch to another industry where legacy skills may still be relevant? 
• Should they be planning early retirements already?

For them, this is the right time to get a little braver and smarter to deal with the current predicament. It’s both possible and imperative to evolve their kit of competencies considering the new world order. They can add to and augment their Banking and Finance expertise by learning the new tools that AI, automation, and Cloud present. To add to that, if you are already in a C-Suite position, it is even more critical to gain the right FinTech chops so you can help your organization stay relevant and robust in the unfamiliar landscape. At this point, it is interesting to note,

• Multinational and large corporations are more likely to have a C-suite executive responsible (42 percent), while the number stands at only 29 percent at middle-market companies. 
• Organizations with revenues of USD 5bn-plus are significantly more likely to have a C-suite executive responsible (44 percent). For those with revenues of less than USD 1bn, it is 31 percent.

As a senior Finance professional, getting up to speed on the new reality is crucial.

Learn, adapt and grow

To upgrade themselves with newer capabilities and stay relevant, senior Finance professionals can tap into some well-crafted FinTech courses available at many good institutes today. Some of these courses are designed with a lot of flexibility and ease to take them online in an interactive and engaging environment, coupled with rich networking opportunities with industry experts and peers. 

Once armed with the FinTech expertise they lack now, these senior Finance professionals can leap forth with so many advantages hard to catch up to for even the sharpest FinTech natives today. The geeks’ technology know-how can be exponentially empowered with senior finance professionals’ rare and hard-earned expertise. It opens up so many avenues in strategic, operational, and management roles that the new breed of FinTech companies want to fill as soon as possible.

There is a shortage of senior expertise at even the most future-forward FinTech company. It has been observed that 75 percent of Financial organizations are creating jobs related to Fintech, but 42 percent struggle to fill the roles. In the PwC 22ND Annual Global CEO survey, one finds that if ten years ago, only about 50 percent of Financial Services leaders saw skills shortages as a threat to their growth prospects, the number has risen to a staggering 80 percent today. It is going to worsen as disruption gets deep and wide.

Convert turbulence into velocity

As much as two-thirds of Financial Services organizations are concerned about the availability of FinTech skills among their senior leadership team and across the sector as well. The situation is full of both concerns and opportunities–as you can surmise reasonably.

This is the right time to learn the new language that the FinTech tribe speaks in. Once that’s in place, you can bank on your rich métier with new confidence and power.  With all that experience under your belt, your learning curve would be very short. 

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The FinTech industry has been disruptive right from the start and has succeeded in redefining various ownership-based traditional financial services models. FinTech has replaced them with a democratic model and made financial services easily accessible to people. Over the last decade, this industry has grown exponentially, creating a huge demand for professionals with FinTech-specific capabilities. In this article, we will share five skills that can ensure a great start to your FinTech career.

FinTech – 2020 and Beyond

Continuing with the trend from 2019, financial institutions are expected to increasingly develop or adopt capabilities pertaining to machine learning and artificial intelligence.

The FinTech market in India is expected to cross $31 billion in 2020.
~ Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog

The Indian FinTech industry is the third-largest in the world and is expanding at a great pace. Hence, to ensure a rewarding FinTech career, it is important to equip yourself with skills that are in high demand in the industry. Here are the top five options:

#1. Blockchain Technology Experts

Blockchain professionals are in demand across different segments of the FinTech Industry. The growth and rise of cryptocurrencies laid the foundation for an ever-increasing demand for professionals specialising in Blockchain technology. While most people understand the theory behind this technology, not many professionals can implement it successfully. Blockchain experts can expect handsome salaries and a FinTech career that helps you grow at a thrilling pace.

#2. Software Programmers

One of the best ways to kick-start your FinTech career is by acquiring programming skills in C++, Java, C#, JavaScript, SQL, and Python. There is a rising demand for programmers who can develop full-stack platforms, websites, and above all, mobile applications in this industry. Programmers are also needed for developing APIs of new services and products. Moreover, programming skills can also open many other career avenues for you.

#3. Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning Skill

We are generating more data than ever before. Organizations have access to useful data that requires analysis, scrutiny, and interpretation. This is the only way to convert volumes of data into useful information. This is where professionals with knowledge of technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning are in demand. These professionals are the definition of skilled humans working with smart machines to create innovative products and services and gain better customer insights.

#4. Cyber Security

Cyber security jobs are growing in number with not enough talent to fill the vacancies. In fact, Cybersecurity Ventures has predicted that by 2021, around 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs will be unfilled. This is a great opportunity for you to start your FinTech career. FinTech startups are especially vulnerable to cyber-attacks and malicious threats. All FinTech companies, large or small, are constantly on the lookout for new talent in cyber security to help safeguard them against the latest threats and ensure their financial and reputational security. As a cybersecurity expert, the sky will be your limit!

#5. Soft Skills

Although the industry is all about leveraging technology, you cannot succeed without the right soft skills. The world is changing and so are the people in it. Hence, successful professionals require a specific set of soft skills to catapult them ahead of their peers and steer their careers in the right direction. These include people skills like communication, emotional intelligence, empathy, problem-solving skills, flexibility, and adaptability. Be a learner and develop these skills while on a job or as a part of life. You can also join soft skill courses for the same.

A successful FinTech career requires you to learn the skills that are in demand in the industry and expected to remain so in the near future. The technology industry is volatile and newer technology brings newer skill requirements. However, the skills mentioned above are in their development stages making it the right time to learn them and start a career in the growing FinTech industry.

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Myth #1: All FinTechs are the same

Fact:

FinTech, by its very definition, is a broad spectrum of things, involving different kinds of programs and applications. But, more often than not, they are categorized under the same head. As mentioned earlier, the finance industry is radically changing and emerging with newer products and services like money transfer, wealth management, lending, payments, to name just a few. And each of these subdomains of finance can make the most out of FinTech applications, designed for the respective function. Hence, they cannot be the same. Like every other technology, no two financial tech tools are designed the same way or can fulfill the same need. So, before you decide to opt for a FinTech solution for your finance business, it is important to explore the others and see what suits your business architecture and meets your and your customer’s needs.

Myth #2: The FinTech industry will squash banking.

Fact:

There is a popular rumor going around that banks and FinTech services are at loggerheads and FinTech will most probably win the battle by bringing the banking system to an end. This is perhaps the biggest misconception surrounding this new technology. FinTech evolved as a natural course of development in the banking process. The technology is rather a catalyst to the banking system to streamline and expedite processes and functions and enhance the customer experience. This fear is very much like that of AI, when it was first introduced, making people believe that it will wipe out human intervention. In reality, it assisted manual functions and enhanced productivity and performance. Similarly, with innovations in FinTech, banking services are only going to evolve and become more efficient and take the sector to the next level.

Myth #3: Fintech is all about money

Fact:

Perhaps the words Finance and Technology together have led people to believe that it has everything to do with money. But it is a myth. Although about 80% of FinTech investments* (global) so far have been in lending and payment systems, it is still not a defining parameter. FinTech’s applications reach way beyond monetary transactions and extend to insurance, fraud detection, investment management, marketing provisioning and so on. FinTech also has immense capability to provide refined data analysis, which is becoming increasingly popular among financial service enterprises.

Myth #4: FinTech comes with a lot of risks

Fact:

Being a digital product, there is a lot of concern regarding the security protocol of FinTech. But that also applies to any digital tool or new technology product. However, if we see beyond the facades, evolved technologies like cloud computing have ample capabilities to keep FinTech secure. Also, as with any other tech innovation, there is a constant effort on managing security issues at every step and addressing threats or probable areas of hacks. With advanced security measures, fraud detection, and better encryption standards, FinTech will soon prove to be a reliable and convenient platform.

Myth #5: Newer regulations can be detrimental to FinTech

Fact:

Most people think that like many new technologies, FinTech is just a ‘bubble’ and with changing economic regulations, it will soon burst. Government regulations are inevitable. But that doesn’t mean it can wipe out an entire system that is being built. FinTech leaders are quite aware of these possibilities and are leaving no stone unturned to partner with the Government and make it an integral part of economic development. Also, in many countries, the Government is actively involved in developing FinTechs and exploiting its potential for better financial services to the citizens.

The world of finance is diverse and can reap a lot of benefits from FinTech if applied right. But only when one understands it well and avoids the myths, can one see the real advantages. With many new trends like dedicated FinTech centers, specialized funding for FinTech companies, AI-powered insights, and growth of predictive analytics, this technology space will only grow bigger and better.

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The Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C), in collaboration with TalentSprint, a digital platform for professional education, has come up with a new course targeting management and finance professionals, with the aim of equipping them with modern-age digital tools.

The 6-month programme, titled Advanced Programme in FinTech and Financial Blockchain, has a course fee of Rs 3.36 lakh. The course will commence in May and will be certified by IIM-C.

The programme helps participants learn about financial technologies and its increasingly disruptive impact on the banking and financial ecosystem. In addition, it will prepare them to exploit the immense potential of FinTech to design and drive new product strategies for their organisations.

“A vast majority of firms in the banking and financial sector believe that the lack of adequate FinTech talent is an existential threat to their future. Our FinTech programme, designed with today’s management and finance professionals in mind, will leverage the deep research and consulting expertise of IIM Calcutta faculty and our state-of-art Finance Lab,” Indranil Bose, one of the Programme Directors said.

IIM-C aims to have around 2000 learners of this programme in the coming few years.

With over 50 years of academic excellence, IIM Calcutta is the only management institution in India with triple accreditation from AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS and is highly regarded for its excellence in the financial education domain.

On the other hand, FinTech is attracting significant investments with over 1000 companies raising in excess of $100 billion in the recent past. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology reported a total of 2.45 billion digital payments in August 2018.

NASSCOM estimates Indian FinTech will double in size every three years while Gartner predicts that within a decade, 80 per cent of financial firms will lose their relevance because of the threats posed by new FinTech advancements, unforeseen competition, and altered customer preferences.

Sources –   Business Standard

 The Indian Express

 Yahoo! News

 Business Wire India

 Data Quest

 The Asian Age

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