The shortage of workers will be one of the most important issues for banks in the coming years – and thus also for Frankfurt as an employment location, where around 70,000 men and women are currently employed by financial institutions. According to a study by Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba), banks will lack hundreds of specialists in the future, especially in the areas of sustainability, regulation and digitalisation. According to the study, there will be too few experts there in the next few years who could meet the demand.

Daniel Schleidt

Coordinator of the business editorial department in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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However, finding them will be urgently needed to ensure the future viability of the industry. The consulting firm zeb expects financial service providers to lose around a third of their employees due to age by 2030. This is also due to the high average age calculated by the management consultants: According to the study, employees in Frankfurt's banks are on average 47 years old – five years older than the average for all employees in Germany.

New systems to train employees

No wonder that banks are increasingly concerned with the issue of securing skilled workers. For example, Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing has recently pointed out several times that the HR departments of credit institutions could face major challenges. On the one hand, staff are still being cut there, for example in the private customer business; At the same time, however, specialists are always being sought in newer fields such as digitization. That's why Sewing sees companies as having a duty when it comes to employee qualification. "We need to find completely different systems to be able to continuously train our workforce," says Sewing.

In doing so, the CEO, who is also President of the Association of German Banks, is hitting a nerve with young people. In a nationwide consultation, the Germany Finance network, which brings together the country's financial centres, asked more than 4700 men and women between the ages of 15 and 35 for suggestions on what the financial sector needs to do to encourage more young people to want to work there. The participants could then agree or reject these proposals.

Young people expect more economic education

The results show that central banks and financial institutions have to make an effort if they want to attract specialists and executives. This is because the new generation expects more transparency from the industry, maximum flexibility, opportunities for advancement and opportunities for participation, as the results of the consultation, which are available to the F.A.Z., show.

However, the highest approval ratings are received by demands that are primarily aimed at politicians. 49 proposals related solely to better integrating economic education, i.e. knowledge of banks and financial systems, into education at schools and universities. "You should introduce a household subject in school to understand taxes, finances and the like," says Eric, 32 years old, and 82 percent of the participants in the consultation agreed with this demand. Young people don't understand the technical terms of the financial world, says Samantha, 19 years old. In addition, many of the respondents would like to be informed about the everyday relevance of finances. "You should use everyday examples to make it clear to young people what financial security means and how to achieve it," says 25-year-old study participant Katharina.