Karat blog

To assess engineering skills in financial services, organizations should define the competencies needed for each role, develop interview content that measures both foundational engineering and AI skills, evaluate candidates in realistic environments, and standardize their interviews and scoring. By taking these steps, you’ll be able to reliably identify software engineers who can build secure products […]

Canadian banks should evaluate AI-ready contract engineers across four areas: engineering fundamentals, AI fluency, responsible AI judgment, and role-specific AI engineering skills. The strongest candidates can use AI productively, validate its output, protect sensitive data, identify security and model risks, and make sound decisions within a regulated banking environment. Banks should assess these capabilities through […]

For most financial services organizations, software contractors aren’t optional. Whether it’s modernizing core systems, accelerating digital initiatives, or scaling delivery capacity, CIOs rely on IT Service Providers (ITSPs) to keep projects moving. But as many leaders have learned the hard way, contractor quality often fails to meet expectations. Last summer, Karat launched the first Partner […]

Financial services (FinServ) organizations are increasingly relying on contract engineers. They’re among the top five industries driving outsourcing demand, and the European Central Bank found that banks increased their budget for information and communication technology services by an average of 2.1% from 2023 to 2024. Outsourcing provides access to specialized talent, as our data shows […]

AI is transforming the financial services (FinServ) industry, from trading to digital banking and fraud detection. As demand for digital innovation increases, FinServ organizations are increasingly relying on contractors and IT Service Providers (ITSPs) to deliver rapid progress while minimizing risk. Their expectations are rising at the same time, as engineering teams need to meet […]

“Managing contractor quality has always been a challenge, especially when you don’t have a consistent standard and industry benchmarks,” said Michael Ruttledge, Chief Information Officer and Head of Enterprise Technology & Security at Citizens Bank. “Karat’s trusted third-party standard ensures contractors meet our bar, helps IT Service Providers build trust faster, and gives us invaluable performance insurance.”