Do banks still need geeks?
Given declining spend on IT systems to support exotic derivatives trading, it seems fair to assume that banks won't be nearly as enthusiastic when it comes to hiring technologically oriented geeks in future.
However, those in the industry beg to disagree. Deutsche Bank's electronic trading director, Giuseppe Nuti says that while complex investments may be diminishing, there's now more emphasis on hiring PhDs to produce, "good research in other areas of financial computing."
Philip Treleaven, director of University College London's new Doctorial Training Centre in Financial Computing, which has the support of more than 20 banks and financial institutions, says "a number of banks" are still actively recruiting scientists and engineers. "I think some institutions will find out this year that they have fired too many people," he says (hopefully).
Christopher Clack, director of the MSc course in financial computing at UCL, says demand for its graduates is "volatile," but that some investment banks, financial tech firms and consultancies remain keen to recruit. "Modern financial markets cannot work without IT - so technology skills will always be in demand. However, there is likely to be a reduction in the numbers of graduates required over the next 18 months or longer," he says.
In turn, geeks still appear keen to get into the industry. Dr David Cappitt, director of the Financial Computing BSc at Brunel University, says there's been a 10% upswing in applications this year.
Financial computing MSc courses:
UCL's MSc in Financial Computing
University of Oxford's MSc in Mathematical and Computational Finance
Imperial College London's MSc in Computing for Industry
University of Stirling's MSc in Computing for Financial Markets
University of Ulster's MSc Computing for Financial Services
Napier University, Edinburgh's MSc Information Systems for Financial Services
Swansea University's MSc Mathematics & Computing for Finance
