Assessing Competencies of Fintech Employees: Development and Validation of a Competency Model and Assessment Scale

Fintech, which refers to various technologies (e.g., apps and software) that improve the delivery and/or use of financial activities, is increasingly applied in the financial services industry. However, little is known about the competencies of employees working with fintech (hereafter, ‘fintech employees’). We developed a competency model for fintech employees and then generated and validated instruments for assessing their competencies. In Study 1, we developed a competency model with 13 competencies for fintech employees through interviews and a survey. In Study 2, we followed the standard scale development process (i.e., item generation, content validity assessment, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and predictive validity assessment) to develop and validate items for assessing seven selected competencies. In Study 3, we checked the predictive validity of these competencies by testing our hypotheses. In general, these competencies predicted different aspects of fintech employee performance outcomes. Overall, we demonstrated the reliability, validity, and incremental predictive validity of the seven competencies.