BERLIN: Only 6 per cent of the directors overseeing the world’s biggest banks have any technology experience even though issues ranging from cyber security to digital challengers have shot up their boardroom agenda, a study has found.
Almost half of the world’s 109 biggest banks have no board members with any technology experience and a further quarter of them have only one such director, according to the research by Accenture.
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Very few banks have technologists on their boards and yet when you look at the big strategic challenges facing their business, particularly from financial technology companies, a lot of banks’ revenue is under threat from this area,” said Richard Lumb, head of financial services at Accenture.
The study counted up all the bank directors who have ever had senior technology responsibilities in a company, such as chief information officer, or who have had senior responsibilities at a technology company, such as sitting on its board as a non-executive.
So, for example, Sir Mike Rake, deputy chairman of Barclays, counted as having technology experience as he is non-executive chairman of telecoms group BT — even though he spent most of his career as an accountant at KPMG.
Banks in the US and UK scored highest on the proportion of their directors who have such technology experience, but even they only reach 15.7 and 14.3 per cent respectively.
The lowest figures came from banks in Brazil, Greece, Italy, and Russia, which have no directors with a background in technology. French banks have only 3 per cent of directors with technology experience, while Spanish and Swiss banks have less than 7 per cent.
Financial services companies compare poorly to most other industries in this area. A recent study by headhunters Russell Reynolds found financial groups had less than a third of the digital experience on their boards than other sectors, such as healthcare and consumer goods.
