Digital leadership will be critical for the future of banking, according to FST Media’s inaugural Market Insights research on the priorities of IT leaders in financial services.

The survey of 64 IT decision makers across Asia Pacific yielded a clear picture of digital strategies and investments, with 18.8 per cent of respondents indicating that investing in digitalisation and digital marketing technologies is business critical. A further 46.9 per cent rated digital as second highest priority on the technology investment agenda.

Having the right digital skills and tools are key to achieving digital leadership, with 76.1 per cent of respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement “we do not believe digital skills and tools are necessary.”

Furthermore, 73.9 per cent of respondents believe they need to increase the skillset of their IT organisation for digital and online technologies, with 60.8 per cent possessing a clear, well-executed implementation plan for the digital strategy.

Note: The winner of the lucky draw of FST Media’s inaugural Market Insights survey is Michael Weigold.