Asset and wealth managers believe that their sector will grow over the next year.

And nearly two-thirds of them said they planned to recruit new staff, higher than in other areas of financial services.

A total of 92 per cent of those in a survey by professional services firm PwC said they were confident or very confident about revenue growth over the next 12 months, higher than the average of 86 per cent across other parts of the financial sector.

Scott Watson-Brown, asset and wealth management leader at PwC, said: “Confidence in the growth of the industry is high and CEOs are taking action to shape the future of their organisations.

“Although the survey shows signs of the asset and wealth management sector being slow to innovate and adapt, CEOs are acutely aware of the impact technology and their people strategy will have on their business.

“Alignment in these two areas will be imperative in unlocking the revenue growth that they foresee.”

Top concern among the 185 CEOs from 45 countries who took part was the availability of major skills, with 71 per cent worried they would not find people with the right qualifications.

A total of 66 per cent cited the speed of technological change as a worry, while 64 per cent cited changing customer behaviour.

Other concerns included a lack of trust on 61 per cent and the risk of cyberattacks on 59 per cent.

The PwC report said: “Despite concern about technology’s speed of change, CEOs believe it has had less of a transformative impact on the sector than other financial services areas over the past 20 years.

“Just 53 per cent believe technology has completely reshaped or significantly impacted competition in the sector versus 74 per cent of banking and capital market leaders.

“By contrast, 77 per cent of CEOs across financial services see technology doing the same again within five years versus only 65 per cent of asset and wealth management leaders.”

The survey report added: “Interestingly, only 10 per cent of asset and wealth management CEOs plan to strengthen their digital capabilities, compared with 23 per cent across financial services, despite two-thirds of CEOs being concerned about the speed of technological change as a threat to growth.”

The survey also found members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development were seen as the most important markets for expansion this year.

Responses to the survey, carried out between August and December last year, showed a major shift towards the US as a key market, with 54 per cent backing the city as the most important outside their domestic market compared to 39 per cent last year.

New York topped the list of most important financial centres, with Beijing tying with London in second — underlining China’s emergence as a global wealth management centre.