Fintech is “literally hiring people out of Facebook and Amazon", says Faes

Fintech is “literally hiring people out of Facebook and Amazon", according to fintech leader Christian Faes.

The co-founder of LendInvest and chair of the industry group Fintech Founders was responding to data showing a 75 per cent rise in employees exiting traditional banks and joining fintechs since the start of the pandemic.

Figures also show staff are also jumping ship from tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft to join fintechs, according to a Bloomberg report, which was based on data from Revelio Labs, a workplace intelligence firm.

“There’s a war for talent,” Faes told Bloomberg.

Faes said that regulation in traditional banks along with legacy processes and legacy technology was encouraging staff to join fintechs.

“We’re literally hiring people out of Facebook and Amazon, really high-tech engineers, and they don’t naturally gravitate toward banks with coding systems from the 1980s.”

Revolut,Monzo and Coinbase are amongst those whose ranks have been swelled with staff from the likes of Goldman Sachs and HSBC.

“People have stopped and re-evaluated what’s important to them,” Lisa Simon, an economist at Revelio, said.

An improved work-life balance, improved pay and better career prospects were given as other key drivers for the switch to fintech, experts say.

Data shows that Monzo has hired 32 former staff from Lloyds, 27 from Barclays and 21 from HSBC.

Not to be outdone, Revolut has hired 38 HSBC employees while 28 Morgan Stanley employees have switched to Coinbase, the US crypto exchange and 12 to Wise.

Data also shows that 37 Goldman Sachs staff have moved to Coinbase from January 2020 to April 2022.

A further 21 Goldman Sachs staff have joined Brex, the US credit card fintech while 18 have joined SoFi Technologies, the mobile-first lender.

Morgan Stanley and HSBC did not comment, while Barclays and Lloyds pointed to the importance their banks place on workplace culture.