Stock brokers plan to shift towards tech-driven brokerage; mull increase in IT manpower: Survey

Around 71 per cent of stock brokers are considering a shift towards a technology-based model and mulling increasing manpower in their IT team, as per a survey conducted by ANMI among its 900 members.

The survey found that the increasing frequency and sophistication of cyber threats could be prompting financial institutions to invest more in technology to protect themselves and their customers from such threats.

The Association of National Exchanges Members of India (ANMI) carried out the survey last month to determine the role and contribution of financial technologies in the stockbroking industry.

The StockTech Survey released on Friday also showed that around 61 per cent of the stockbroking companies didn't face IT- related issues last year, while only 39 per cent of such companies faced IT-related issues.

Moreover, low cost and technological upgradation of trading infra are the key drivers of growth. Everyone is focusing on technology and leading players have been seen advancing both their back-end and front-end with the latest technologies, the survey noted.

As per the survey, an average of 30 per cent of investment is expected to be made in technology in the year 2022-23 as technology offers a wide range of products and services for both customers and other businesses.

Additionally, the rise of fintech companies, which rely heavily on technology, may be driving traditional financial institutions to increase their own technological capabilities in order to stay relevant and competitive.

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"Technology has been a key growth driver and has provided services to investors. This has been demonstrated amply during the Covid period. It was technology and digitization that helped us to serve investors in a seamless manner be it from home or office during the Covid period," Kamlesh Shah, President of ANMI , said.

According to the survey, 33 per cent of their business processes shifted from physical to digital as shifting to digital processes in trading can lead to increased efficiency and speed, improved accessibility, and cost reduction.

It pointed out that technology has streamlined communication within the investment industry, enabling the industry to thrive even during the uncertain times caused by the pandemic.

Over 92 per cent of the respondents are optimistic that the new cyber security norms will make their businesses more robust against cyberattacks.

"Cyber security becomes very important in the new age era. Sebi has taken several effective steps, we are doing cyber audits, and taken initiative to build market security," Shweta Banerjee, DGM at Sebi, said.

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