Fitch Learning Examines the Future of Financial Services in the Post-Covid-19 World at City Week 2020

The UK financial industry is transforming the way that its data and insights are used by the City’s top financial firms to improve their operational business models, and also taking measures to rapidly upskill its workforce to gain a global competitive advantage at a time of unprecedented economic upheaval and market distribution due to the pandemic and Brexit.

A panel of experts, including Rob Thakur, Managing Director, Europe, Fitch Learning will discuss why it is crucially important for financial leaders and professionals across the industry to keep pace with rapid organisational changes, manage skill shifts and embrace technological advances now in Skills for the Future: Attracting New Talent and Upskilling The Workforce at City Week 2020 on Tuesday, 22 September 2020.

Organised under a partnership between the UK Government’s Department for International Trade, the City of London Corporation, TheCityUK, UK Finance, London & Partners and City & Financial Global, City Week 2020 will bring together in virtual format more than 1,000 prominent figures from the international financial services community, including market participants and policy makers drawn from around the world, to discuss the most pressing matters affecting the international financial services industry in the era of Covid-19.

Commenting on the panel, Rob Thakur, Managing Director, Europe, Fitch Learning, said:

“Firms really need to respond to this crisis by seeing it as an opportunity to reshape their business operations, upskill their workforces and shift to agile ways of working, such as Virtual Relationship Management. Professional as well as technical skills will be needed amongst financial professionals in this new virtual environment. Furthermore, AI and Machine Learning are transforming roles in the financial services industry. The biggest challenge for most firms to tackle right now is how they are going to upskill up to 50 – 60% of their workforces to be ready to take on new jobs in the midst of this global pandemic and in the future, when some roles don’t even exist yet.” 

Maurice Button, Chief Executive of City Week, said: 

“Covid-19 has precipitated a radical rethink about the purpose of companies and their accountability to different stakeholders, as well as how the capitalist model could or should be redefined. Financial services companies are at the heart of this debate. City Week 2020 will provide a vital forum for the discussion of the issues that really matter to industry leaders and their principal stakeholders.”