IT banking professionals to expect 20% pay rise

Programming skills remain highly sought after across industries.

The financial services scene in Hong Kong continues to generate a booming demand for IT security professionals so much so that they can expect a 20% salary rise for the next year, according to Robert Walters salary survey.

Most financial institutions are allocating more resources to maintain their IT security divisions but the cost of employing such individuals is likely to rise as there is a shortage of IT security talent in the local market, the survey added.

To distinguish oneself amongst the pool of talent and stand out against the stiff competition, the survey recommended that one must also acquire a working knowledge of financial markets and instruments in addition to coding skills.

Java continues to be the favoured programming language in the banking scene however Python is increasing in popularity for many roles in both buy-side and sell-side clients.

Big data roles are increasingly requiring developers that well-versed in Python or C+++ to help with data manipulation and analysis.

With the large demand for IT professionals not just in the financial services sector but across industries, the 20% increase in salary rise by 2018 is no longer just at the upper end of the range, but has slowly become the norm.