“In an international study we’ve published at the beginning of this year where Romanian banks participated as well, we asked financial managers about the risks and opportunities they see. About 60 percent of banks in Eastern Europe said their business reached the level before the pandemic, more interesting is that over 50 percent mentioned that the pandemic had a positive effect on their business.

In this context, the biggest risk they mentioned is finding and keeping skilled workforce. Here we are talking about competencies and skills in topics such as cyber security, data science, advanced analytics which are very difficult to find in just one person – business skills, deep industry know-how, statistical modeling, performance management etc. As we also discuss this risk with our clients, with banks, here in Romania, we try combine the necessary skills within an assignment to address the challenge and ensure know-how transfer. Another risk mentioned by banks is cyber-attacks. At the beginning of the year, 60 percent of respondents in Eastern Europe mentioned this risk, but internationally somewhere around 30 percent. Probably in the meantime the percentages have changed a bit considering the latest events,” Iulia Malioukis, Principal Financial Industries, Horváth said during Financial Forum 2022 organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

Full recording of the conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mKuoh09GM4