In the UK, professional hiring has returned to pre-recessionary levels with an average salary increase of 2.6% across various roles including for financial services in the last year, according to the 2015 Robert Half Salary Guide. The guide, which surveys starting salaries and recruitment trends in various sectors including finance, accounting and financial services, found 80% of financial leaders interviewed cited risk culture is impeding growth which is impacting hiring trends for risk managers. DerivSource spoke to Andy Dallas, associate director at Robert Half Financial Services for some quick views on general salary rises, trends in risk roles and collateral management.
Q. Hiring is now back to pre-recession levels. What are the driving factors behind this improvement other than just economic stability?
A. Employees are now armed with confidence, knowingly aware of the improved market situation, which in turn is further contributing to the strong hiring climate momentum. Many companies are looking to hire temporary professionals to manage rising workloads while they assess their long term volume levels. The confidence in hiring is not only driven by the nine in 10 (89%) financial services leaders who express positivity in the state of the British economy, but also 93% who are confident in their own companies’ prospects. This confidence is extended to the investor community who are looking for greater transparency control, process and reporting. Compliance and regulatory initiatives are therefore driving hiring efforts.
Q. Can you explain how the adoption of a risk culture is impacting the way firms are sourcing professionals in financial services? What are the hottest roles in financial services (risk) and why?
A. The adoption of a risk culture, particularly within the banks, has been driven by the numerous regulatory initiatives of the past three to four years. Businesses have required niche experts to rapidly implement these initiatives, so there has been a significant rise in the use of management consultancies and interim managers to bridge the knowledge gap while enabling timely delivery. To cope, many banks have responded by setting up divisions focused on regulatory change and charged with coordinating change management across risk, compliance and finance. This has led to a sharp rise in the demand for permanent staff.
The current regulatory regime has attached significant importance to the reserving of capital across the various risk types and good implementation has been rewarded with reduced capital requirements. As there are heightened requirements for models to be validated and stress tested, so too has the demand increased for quantitative analysts in risk management. Businesses are challenged in sourcing the requisite talent, and with demand exceeding supply, salaries are increasing in this specialism.
In addition, there is currently active demand for business analysts, both on a permanent and interim basis, quantitative risk managers with SAS experience, particularly in the credit risk arena as well as regulatory and economic capital subject matter experts.
Q. The jump in collateral managers is pretty low. Was there a reason behind this lag? Do you expect it to change?
A. Collateral management roles generally remain fairly static so there are no main reasons for the more modest increase.
