EY: The future of the talent agenda in payments

Title of Report: The future of the talent agenda in payments

Report Link: Payments | EY – Global

Size of Report: 34 pages.  Published Oct 2024

EY’s report always differs from other analysts. This year it is worth a read for those in HR and leadership roles as it looks at the pace of change in payments and the different talent mix needed to stand out and thrive. Set out in a series of presentation like slides its an easy and engaging read.

The impact of seven transformative forces: real-time payments rails, open banking, BNPL, digital wallets and super apps, embedded payments, digital currencies and CBDCs, and cross-border payments is reshaping the talent landscape

The EY report identifies the most critical skills and roles needed to drive the next wave of innovation in payments and explore strategies to attract grow and deploy talent – the most valuable asset for any firm. This will require prioritising human-centric skills such as curiosity and managing ambiguity, interpersonal skills and

learning agility.

With the pace of change, organisations require talent with a keen focus on customer experience, technology, data, risk and innovation. EY research identified several key building blocks to a successful and forward-looking talent agenda in payments. Page 6 sets out eight critical skills and eight key roles across payments, the importance of an agile, customer-centric operating model, and how to attract, grow and deploy talent.

Pages 8 – 13 delves into the eight critical skills where the pace of payment innovation is such that technical skills change quickly. This leads to an increased focus on human centred skills where interviews highlights adaptability and curiosity as being key. Further as technologies advance, EY expect interpersonal and customer skills to be increasingly important. Page 9 then sets out the eight critical skills.

Pages 14 – 19 looks at eight future key roles covering sales, product, technology architecture, engineering, regulation, compliance and legal, customer operations and FinCrime, operational resilience and cyber.

Interestingly many of the reference examples come from leading fintech’s. The report also covers How to build a high-performing team: agile, customer-centric operating models and Talent strategy to attract, grow

and deploy people.

If you enjoyed the content and approach we have taken, here are 4 suggestions of how to engage for more:

1. Follow our Stanchion LinkedIn Page and join our engaged community.
2. Request a call with our author and Chief Growth Officer, Norman Frankel 
3. View our On-demand Webinar series on Payment Fabric and the research IDC did here, additionally we can send you two reports that summarise the output of the research IDC did covering 150 banks.
4. Drop us an email at engage@stanchionpayments.com with your thoughts, we would love to hear from you.

We wish you a successful 2025 delivering on your business priorities, remaining customer relevant, agile in your project change and avoid fraud from the rapidly growth in financial crime as instant real-time payments, QR code-initiated payment adoption and use of ever advancing AI tools continue to accelerate.