BlackRock now has a higher percentage of engineers than JPMorgan, and it says a lot about the future of the money management industry

Associated Press

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink

• About a quarter of BlackRock's 14,000 employees work as technologists, the firm's chief financial officer said Wednesday.
• That's a higher percentage than at JPMorgan.
• Like its peers, BlackRock is betting on technology as a growth driver.

BlackRock's chief financial officer just disclosed a key figure that illustrates the importance of technology to the world's largest asset manager.

About a quarter of BlackRock's 14,000 employees, or 3,500 people, work as technologists, BlackRock CFO Gary Shedlin said at an investor conference on Wednesday.

That's a higher percentage than the 20% of JPMorgan's 250,000 employees who work in technology functions, but still lags the 30% of Fidelity 40,000 employees who work in tech.

Like its peers, BlackRock, which oversees $6.4 trillion in assets, is betting on technology as a growth driver. BlackRock's signature technology product is Aladdin, an investment management platform that touches $18 trillion of assets globally. Though technology services makes up just 6% of the firm's total revenue, which is largely dependent on fees paid for assets under management, the segment jumped 18% year-on-year for the third quarter to $200 million.

The increase reflected "an outsized number of new clients sourced in 2017 and successfully implemented in the current year," Shedlin said, noting that the firm is targeting low- to mid-teens growth for the technology business long-term.

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The firm has also picked up a number of minority stakes in financial technology companies, including iCapital, Scalable Capital, and Acorn. Last week, the firm said it would buy a small interest in Envestnet, which will expand its reach in the financial advisor community.

BlackRock is spending around $1 billion annually in technology and data, Shedlin said.

Earlier this year, JPMorgan Chase's chief information officer said the firm was spending about $10.8 billion on technology, while Citigroup is dedicating about $8 billion. Morgan Stanley spends about $4 billion.

Meanwhile, Fidelity spends about $2.5 billion annually on technology, research and design, according to the firm's website.

A BlackRock representative declined to comment further on the firm's tech spend.

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• Citi has poached a Chase executive to run its 'Shark Tank'-type program that lets employees build startups from within the company