27/09/2019

IBF Unveils Skills Framework For Financial Services That Charts Skills Needed For Finance Professionals And Financial Institutions To Stay Ahead

The Institute of Banking and Finance Singapore (IBF) today unveiled the Skills Framework for Financial Services which sets out progression pathways and skills required for a career in the industry. The framework, jointly developed by IBF, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) and Workforce Singapore (WSG), will help individuals make informed decisions for career development and skills upgrading.

Announcing the launch at the IBF Distinction Evening 2019, Guest of Honour Mr Ong Ye Kung, Minister for Education and board member of MAS, urged financial institutions (FIs) to use the new Skills Framework for staff development and workforce planning. He also encouraged finance professionals to familiarise themselves with technology, augment their skills and adapt to stay relevant in their jobs.

The Skills Framework for Financial Services builds on and enhances the industry recognised IBF Standards which have been adopted by almost all major FIs. It sets out the technical and generic skills required in financial services jobs, features new job roles in digital and data analytics and incorporates new skills identified in the earlier IBF-MAS study. The new framework will be the reference standard for the financial services industry.

Finance professionals who acquire requisite skills under the new Skills Framework will be recognised through IBF Certification. Finance professionals are familiar with IBF Certifications and close to 10,000 finance professionals are already IBF Certified in segments such as compliance, consumer banking, corporate banking, financial planning and private banking. IBF is also in discussion with the industry to consider obligatory certifications to raise the level of competency and contribute to Singapore’s financial sector development.

More details of the Skills Framework can be found in Annex A.

IBF Awards for industry stalwarts

Five industry veterans were conferred the prestigious “IBF Distinguished Fellow” award. Another 25 individuals were recognised and conferred as “IBF Fellow”. The awards recognise finance industry leaders who had made significant contributions to the development of Singapore’s financial sector through their active involvement in advisory groups, industry projects, training and mentoring. 

The "Inspire Award" was conferred on Standard Chartered Bank, in recognition of its adoption of the IBF Standards in developing its workforce.

New awards to recognise workforce transformation first movers

To recognise efforts in workforce transformation, six FIs were conferred the inaugural “Workforce Transformation Award” by WSG for their commitment and progress in re-skilling existing employees through the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP), which is part of WSG’s Adapt and Grow initiative. 

Selected individuals from these firms were also conferred the “Outstanding Financial Services Professional Award” by the National Trades Union Congress’ (NTUC) e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) for being role models in terms of adaptability in learning new skills and tenacity in keeping up with the changes to their job roles, amid digital disruptions at the workplace. For more details on awards and recipients, please see Annex B.

There are now 28 FIs that have committed to reskill 4,100 finance professionals in the next two years under the PCP. To date, over 2,000 professionals have commenced their programme and about 800 have transited to new job roles.

“Digitalisation will continue to transform jobs and processes in the financial services industry.To take our workforce transformation to the next level, there are three things that we need to get right – first, organisations have to build up their capability in workforce transformation, second, re-skilling needs to be institutionalised and thirdly, to achieve all these, HR must be empowered” said Mr Ng Nam Sin, Chief Executive Officer, IBF in his opening remarks at the event.

Refer to Annex A and B here.