About one-third of the finance related jobs in Singapore would be facing the effect of automation and data analytics in the next three to five years.

Three major technology trends are influencing the transformation of traditional job roles in the financial services sector, according to a recently released joint study by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF).  

Robotic process automation, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence are the major technological shifts that are starting to impact the current jobs and are likely  to result in the replacement of some job roles with automation.

Having looked at more than 121 different job roles which account for about 90 percent of all the jobs in the financial sector, there are about 40 job roles that can be replaced with automation, according to the study.

These roles cover people in the front office, mid-office, back office and other enterprise level tasks, especially in the country’s financial services industry. Bancassurance officer roles in the retail and corporate banking sector and investment performance analysts in asset management are also likely to face the brunt of automation.

The aim of this joint-study was to urge financial institutions to begin upskilling the existing employees whose tasks might be more at risk. In order to meet the needs of the future of the financial sector, the need of the hour is to prepare employees for new roles that would require a different set of technological skill set. With the rise of automation and AR, the financial institutions are going to need talented people who will be able to expertly optimize information technology, data and analytics, compliance and marketing.