Nearly half of financial services professionals (49%) are reporting a significant increase in Gen Z workers leaving their organisation during the last 12 months, according to KPMG’s UK Financial Services Sentiment Survey. Retention challenges are said to have been felt most “prominently” in the banking sector, with the majority or 54% of professionals stating they’ve seen an “increase in under 30’s leaving their organisation.”
The quarterly survey, which reportedly aims to track the overall sentiment of over 150 financial services (professionals, revealed that one in four (26%) Gen Z workers had been estimated to have left FS companies in the past 12 months.
Nearly a third (31%) of FS professionals said that retaining Gen Z talent is more challenging now than it was 5 years back, indicating that there is a widespread concern about “stagnating retention efforts and the sector’s future talent pipeline.”
When asked why Gen Z employees were choosing to leave, FS leaders pointed to a range of factors:
- A preference for working in start-ups (42%)
- Better opportunities in other sectors (36%)
- A desire for self-employment or freelance careers (35%)
- A desire for more flexibility or remote working (34%)
- Relocation/cost of living (34%)
- A poor perception of finance as a career (27%)
- A lack of purpose or social impact in the role (26%)
- Mental health and wellbeing considerations (24%)
- Office attendance policies (22%)
Karim Haji, Global and UK Head of Financial Services at KPMG, said that the fact that almost half of FS professionals are seeing “more young talent walk away from the sector presents a real competitive challenge for financial services.”
Haji added that the sector needs young talent to “bring diversity of skills, experience and thinking. Gen Z employees are clearly signaling a desire for more autonomy, variety and entrepreneurial experiences.”
They also mentioned that the challenge for FS firms now is “how to create an entrepreneurial experience for a social media generation in a heavily regulated environment.”
Almost all FS professionals surveyed (96%) said that they are taking more active steps to boost Gen Z retention. Some approaches reportedly include the following:
- More flexible working policies such as term-time contracts or flexible hours (52%)
- Improving engagement and feedback initiatives (49%)
- Enhancing mental health and wellbeing support (47%)
- Mentorship (47%)
- Better onboarding and early career training (46%)
- Incorporating more flexible working policies (44%)
- Introducing more purpose driven projects/ESG integration (38%)
- Revising office attendance policies (33%)
Karim added that although financial services firms are investing in retention strategies, their data highlights a “disconnect between what Gen Z wants – an entrepreneurial environment – and where firms’ efforts are focused – flexible working and wellbeing.”
Office presenteeism gets a lot of airtime, Haji noted but also pointed out that the the reality is that most FS firms have “made strides in offering flexibility that goes far beyond remote working, whether that’s staggered hours, flexible contracts or better wellbeing support.”
He further noted that this is to be acknowledged, but alongside that FS firms must “keep pace with the changing values and expectations of young talent.”
Methodology
Online quantitative research was caried out by Opinium, which is a research and insights agency, on behalf of KPMG between “4th – 12th of September 2025 of 150 UK adults who are director level and above in financial services companies.”
As clarified in the update, Generation Z (Gen Z), also called Zoomers, are the demographic “cohort born roughly between the mid-1990s and early 2010s, typically from 1997 to 2012.”