Banking professions put to the test of digital skills

Digitization has turned the banking landscape upside down, accelerating automation and redefining professions. While Switzerland is facing a growing shortage of IT specialists, the real challenge for banks goes beyond simply recruiting IT experts. It's the digital skills of all professionals, from risk managers to customer advisors, that are becoming decisive. Between finance and IT, hybrid profiles are now the key to individual employability and collective competitiveness.

The banking professions have undergone profound changes over the past twenty years. The 2000s saw an acceleration in automation and outsourcing, affecting back-office, middle-office and administrative functions in particular. This movement has reshaped the professional landscape: the roles that remain in banks today are highly specialized, requiring not only solid technical and regulatory skills, but also a broad understanding of the business, in-depth mastery of a specialty and the ability to integrate more global strategic issues.

In this context, the mastery of IT skills is becoming essential. Without being a computer scientist, every professional today needs to know how to use Excel in its fundamentals, be familiar with the tools of generative artificial intelligence with an awareness of its risks and opportunities, and have a basic understanding of data modeling. If you don't invest in this kind of training, you run the risk of quickly falling out of step with market expectations.

The rise of artificial intelligence and its possible repercussions on employment are also providing food for thought. A study carried out by the ISFB shows that many players in the financial sector are anticipating a necessary evolution in skills, but do not yet have a clear picture of the real impact to come.

According to ICT-Formation professionnelle Suisse, the Swiss IT industry's umbrella organization, no fewer than 54,400 additional IT professionals will need to be trained by 2033 to cover market demand across all industries. On the banking side, the Swiss Bankers Association notes that the proportion of banks facing recruitment difficulties across all functions has risen again: from 33% in the first quarter of 2025 to 40% in the second quarter(Banking Barometer 2025, SwissBanking, August 2025).

But beyond the recruitment of IT experts, it is the ability of bank specialists - risk managers, compliance officers, support specialists, customer advisors - to integrate IT skills into their day-to-day practice that becomes decisive.

Hybrid skills increasingly in demand

The difficulty of recruiting truly hybrid profiles - capable of combining technical expertise with banking understanding - is widely recognized in the industry. At Azqore SA, a technology provider specializing in services for private banking and a member of the ISFB, the problem is well identified. As Talent Acquisition Partner Charlotte Lebret explains, " one of the main difficulties is finding candidates with both technical and functional skills. Often there's the technical side, but not the private banking knowledge, and sometimes it's the other way round. The most complex thing is to combine technical expertise, a spirit of popularization, an agile mindset and banking skills: it's this mix that complicates the task of recruiters ".

This opens up a central debate: should we prioritize the recruitment of IT specialists trained at universities and colleges, who will then be introduced to the specificities of banking, or should we recruit financial specialists and enable them to acquire digital skills through continuing education?

At Banque Mirabaud, the emphasis is on the former. Fanny Wenger, Head of Recruitment, explains that for its specialized functions, the bank has chosen " to recruit engineers who have studied algorithms, probability, statistics, data systems and data science, rather than economists. The technical skills they have acquired (Python, Java, VBA, PowerBI, SQL...), as well as personal qualities such as rigor, analytical spirit, methodology and critical thinking, make these engineers indispensable resources, the key being to build teams that are balanced between business and technical skills ".

This trend is confirmed by specialist recruiters. Thibaud de Balby, Senior Manager Technology at Michael Page, observes that " in the Swiss banking sector, certain technological skills have become essential. These include advanced data management, cybersecurity, process automation and mastery of modern IT infrastructures ". In his view, recruitment pressures are now focusing on " experts in banking cybersecurity, software specialists for specific banking solutions and IT architects ".

Initial training courses combining IT, banking and social skills

In fact, initial training also plays a central role in preparing these future hybrid profiles. At the Geneva School of Business Administration, Marianne Bayat-Ricard, head of the Business Informatics stream, stresses the importance of this dual competence: " Graduates in Business Informatics from the HEG combine technical skills, mastering infrastructures, data management and analysis, as well as digital tools ".

But this technical dimension alone is not enough. " They also develop organizational, strategic and management skills, giving them a more global vision," she continues. It is precisely this combination that makes them so valuable in a demanding banking environment. " They ensure perfect communication between IT and the banking businesses. They are the key professionals for understanding business logic and developing or maintaining robust, secure IT solutions that meet the requirements of banking and financial environments ", she concludes. The next step is to train future IT experts in the specialties of finance, or in the development of specific soft skills, by means of specialization training once they are in post: " Banks are attaching increasing importance to soft skills. IT professionals need to be able to explain technological issues in layman's terms, and to communicate effectively with the business lines, the business and all stakeholders," points out Thibaud de Balby.

Training financial specialists in data management skills

While recruiting new experts is an essential lever for many banks, upgrading the skills of existing staff is just as important. Their mastery of the business and their roots in banking reality make them key players in gradually integrating digital knowledge and developments into their day-to-day practice.

Now that data has become the raw material of banking, it is no longer possible for a finance specialist not to master the issues at stake. It would be a bit like a doctor refusing to learn about new medical imaging tools: he or she would risk missing out on essential information needed to make a diagnosis. In the same way, a banking professional who doesn't understand the fundamentals of data management is depriving himself of a decisive lever for analysis, decision-making and advice.

Beyond immediate needs, there is also the question of anticipating useful skills, both for the employer and the employee. For Joseph Baud Grasset, Training Manager at ISFB and holder of a Master's degree in Adult Education from the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Geneva, " anticipating skills needs requires an in-depth understanding of the market and its specific features. This starts with a detailed understanding of the economic environment, but also takes into account the strategies specific to each organization ".

Work to enhance employability and support the needs of the industry

The banking industry not only needs more IT specialists, economists, lawyers and other specialized professions, but also hybrid profiles, capable of combining finance and digital technology, regulatory rigor and technological mastery. Continuing training is the keystone of this transformation: it enables skills to be adapted over the course of a career, to enhance the value of a variety of career paths, and to strengthen both individual employability and the competitiveness of institutions, and of the financial sector in general.

For ISFB, two cross-functional skills are now central to the activities of all employees in the profession, whether they work in advisory or support roles: risk management and data management. To these pillars must be added a personal ability to adapt, which has become indispensable in a constantly changing banking environment. All these skills and abilities can be developed through ongoing training or participation in projects and seminars.

As the Swiss Federation for Continuing Education observes, the skills sought on the market in all professions are increasingly hybrid, combining technical expertise, cognitive abilities and social skills (FSEA, 2024). The banking and finance sector is no exception: the future of banking skills will lie in the hybridization of financial expertise, digital know-how and the development of interactional skills. The future of banking skills will lie in the hybridization of financial expertise, digital know-how and the development of interactional skills - a triptych in which the financial center already excels in two dimensions, and in which digital technology must now permeate all business lines, particularly those involving data.

Mathias Baitan

General Manager ISFB

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