Hong Kong central bank studies AI's impact on banking jobs and skills

HKMA deputy chief executive Arthur Yuen said that enhancing employees’ skills would allow them to “coexist with technology in the AI era.”

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance, Hong Kong’s central bank is actively assessing its potential impact on banking professionals.

On May 23, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the special administrative region’s central bank, urged financial institutions to plan manpower development and training strategies as AI’s effects started to be felt within the banking space.

HKMA deputy chief executive Arthur Yuen said that some financial institutions have already re-skilled their staff for new roles in preparation for technological advancements.

He said that some banks had 2% of their staff transitioning into new roles after training programs. Yuen wrote:

“These successful cases include frontline staff at bank branches retrained and redeployed to other functional areas such as wealth management, risk management, compliance, and so on.”

While this happened in 2022, the HKMA executive urged banks to approach the rise of AI similarly. Yuen believes that the industry should plan proactively for manpower development.

The central bank executive believes that enhancing employees’ knowledge and skills could allow them to “coexist with technology in the AI era.”

Because of this, Yuen said that the central bank also updated its Supervisory Policy Manual on capacity building. In the update, the HKMA stated that banks should set a clear future direction for manpower development.

In addition, the executive said that banks should create strategies to address their talent needs, including allocating resources to staff training.

To support the industry, Yuen also announced that the HKMA will conduct a study on the extent of AI’s impact on job roles within banking. The executive said it would provide a reference for the industry and allow them to better support affected employees in their potential transition to other roles.

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Meanwhile, Yuen believes that talent is required for the development of the banking industry to be sustainable. The executive said that at the moment, the “full impact” of generative AI on traditional human jobs has not yet been witnessed.

Despite this, the executive is hopeful that with collaborative efforts, the region’s banking sector could be “well-positioned to maximize the benefits of technology while minimizing its impact on the labor market.”