Why more tech vendors, rather than banks, are recruiting IT professionals
Working for a financial services technology vendor is generally considered something IT professionals do in the early stages of their careers, before moving to a more lucrative roles within an investment bank. However, this flow of talent could soon be reversed.
While investment banks are generally scaling back their IT hiring plans this year, technology vendors are starting to ramp up theirs.
The likes of Calypso, Charles River, Murex, Omgeo, Oracle and Sungard are all currently recruiting, while technology consultant Capco has around 40 live roles in London, according to recruiters.
"A lot of these firms have seen a huge uptick in their business as more financial services firms look to the more cost-effective solution of a third-party system," says Justin Willis, manager of IT in finance recruiters Bright Purple. "They've had to build their own capability as a result."
Part of the reason is that banks are looking for cost efficiencies in IT. A survey of 100 chief information officers from 'major financial services firms' at a recent Bloomberg technology summit revealed that 76% were planning on spending more on IT this year.
Unfortunately, perhaps due to an increased compliance technology burden, 55% were planning on shifting a larger proportion of this budget to managed solutions.
Undoubtedly, Bloomberg has something of a vested interest in asking this question and releasing this data, but it is recruiting 500 IT staff this year.
Rather obviously, not all IT professionals would relish a move from a bank to a technology vendor, where their earning potential will be greatly reduced. However, the upside of this increased spend on off-the-shelf IT solutions is that banks are recruiting more implementation specialists to tailor the software to their individual needs.
"There's an ongoing argument about whether banks should buy or build and they key theme this year is that the latter is winning," says Paul Elworthy, managing director, banking IT at recruiters Hudson. "However, they still need technical specialists to mould these systems to their specifications."
