The announcement towards the end of last year that the Chancellor has accepted the Vickers Report recommendations didn’t come as much of a shock but what’s interesting is the fact that changes to the banking system may well create a raft of job opportunities within the financial service IT sector.

The recommendations include the separation of retail and investment banking arms to ensure stability – basically ensuring that the banking needs of smaller customers and consumers are handled by ring fenced parts of the bank . But from a systems perspective, this is a huge  undertaking – it will require significant IT and operational investments which in turn is likely to create a raft of IT jobs as the banks strive to bring about a complex technology separation. However, we’re likely to be looking at a period of around four years before the boom happens as in reality, we will have to wait and see what timeline the banks will be willing to commit to.

The legislation will not be fully drafted until 2015 with implementation by 2019 and obviously there will be an extended planning period of analysis and design before the real implementation begins.  Much could happen politically, economically and financially during this period but if the work does happen then the projects would be gigantic and will require huge amounts of human resource.

Laurie Boyall is Managing Director of McGregor Boyall the  financial services recruitment specialist for *Change &Transformation*Compliance*Executive Recruitment*IT*Marketing*Product Control &Valuations*Risk

The compliance recruitment market is an area that is continuing to experience growth – largely due to increased regulation from both the EU and UK.  This has resulted in whole teams being created covering both advisory and implementation roles.  And whilst this may have been a prevalent theme over the last eighteen months, there shows no sign of let up for the foreseeable future.  However – it’s not just technical know-how that’s in demand. 

Today’s compliance professionals need to be front office facing and have the diplomacy and rigour to be able to stand up to the trading floor. Sales and Trading teams do not like regulation – they see it as a hindrance to executing business and the challenge for compliance professionals is making it easy for the front office to do their job. They have to be assertive, direct and solutions driven.

Additionally, many of the roles call for product specific knowledge and with demand outstripping supply this has presented opportunities for contract staff with the right product knowledge.  While banks are obviously having to be cost conscious in the current climate, the compliance function is absolutely business critical and so those with relevant experience can continue to justify their rate and their position.

To this end, we are seeing an upward pressure on salaries and daily rates within compliance – a head of compliance, for example, can command rates in excess of £500 a day – and this trend looks set to continue for the foreseeable future.

There is no doubt that the logical consequences of the raft of regulations that have been implemented in the last few years ,is that people who understand and can implement any necessary changes are in high demand. In fact, despite the current gloomy headlines about the job market many of these professionals have taken advantage of this situation to move into lucrative contract roles both to accelerate their career progression and increase their knowledge base.

Robert McLeod

Robert is Financial Services Director at Venn Group, the specialist provider of temporary and interim staff across the UK. Robert has over twelve years’ experience of managing recruitment teams within the financial services sector.

Financial Services professionals within the risk technology space are hot property at the moment due to the potential implementation of ‘living wills’ –the Government’s answer to the avoidance of another Lehman’s crisis.

The  banks are setting up new project teams to focus on the development of recovery and resolution plans which can wind up banks and dissolve toxic assets in a matter of days, rather than the long, drawn out Lehman administration process ( which is still going on).

In hiring terms this is reminiscent of MiFid but on a much larger scale and the project teams are looking at plans to meet both current and anticipated regulatory requirements. While the detail is still not finalised, it is clear that there will be some regulation around resolution planning – and that needs to be pre-empted.  We are already seeing very strong demand for project and programme managers at VP/Director level and once the department heads are in place there will be a trickle-down effect on demand lower down the ranks. Anyone with experience of diagnostics, project planning and implementation around regulatory directives such as  MiFid, SOX, Basel or regulations around liquidity management can consider themselves fairly hot property currently.

Ed Ekins is Managing Consultant within the technology division of Twenty Financial Services

In our latest recruitment update of the year, we took a broader view of market trends. What is strikingly clear from our statistics (a 62% fall of IT hiring requirements between Q2 2010 and Q4 2011) is that there is a direct correlation between the overall economic trends within the financial markets over the last three years and technology hiring. But there is light at the end of the tunnel!

Currently we are seeing a strong demand for technology to support enhanced risk and compliance systems which is understandable given the focus on the risk reduction and planned legislation changes affecting the financial services sector.

While there is no doubt that financial institutions are struggling to reconcile headcount budgets, they are also facing pressure from the FSA to ensure that their risk and compliance functions are both resourced and effective as they gear up for new regulatory directives such as Basel 3. Consequently, while in 2010 the emphasis was on permanent headcount, today the focus has switched and the contract market within the risk arena is very busy. This is particularly true in the insurance market where regulatory directives such as The Retail Distribution Review are driving the need for contractors.

 Against a backdrop of a more regulated and risk averse business environment there is definitely underlying momentum for technology to deliver the business simplification and efficiency necessary for financial institutions to achieve their ROI goals. Consequently there is every chance that IT may ultimately be an indirect beneficiary of the current downturn.

The compliance advisory market is very competitive with institutions fighting hard to retain their talent. Many contractors have been transitioned across into permanent roles. This has created a lack of churn in the market, which has been compounded by the ‘wait and see attitude’ as we approach bonus season, so we expect to see a flurry of activity in the New Year.

Laurie Boyall is Managing Director of McGregor Boyall the  financial services recruitment specialist for *Change &Transformation*Compliance*Executive Recruitment*IT*Marketing*Product Control &Valuations*Risk

I’ve seen a lot of blog posts in recent weeks detailing the downsides to social media in recruitment. Candidates falling foul of employer contracts by posting derogatory comments on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, or job seekers appearing cautious of LinkedIn in case an existing manager thinks they are looking elsewhere.  So what are the positive aspects, and what are the best platforms for those looking to expand their network, or perhaps find a new position?

The candidates we deal with will often remain with us on a series of contract positions over a period of months or years. And whilst we place these job seekers, the importance of social media for increasing an individual’s network of contacts should not be underestimated.  LinkedIn, in particular is a brilliant tool, and with over 100 million users globally, the ability to quickly make and maintain relationships is perfect for a professional throughout their whole career.

If you are on LinkedIn, make sure you have optimised your profile – use the available fields to add all your skills and experiences so if a potential hiring manager or recruiter finds your profile they will have your online CV instantly.  It’s also advisable to think about the key words that a recruiter might use to search on LinkedIn and add these to your summary. For example, if you are an interim head of compliance put this in but also add other keywords such as ‘compliance professional’ , ‘experience in investment banking’ or similar.

Secondly, and even more important for contractors, connect with past and present colleagues and clients. By adding more people to your network you will not only be more visible when recruiters are searching for you, but you will begin to build up a strong network of liked minded professionals who you might want to contact in the future  for potential job opportunities.  Finally, when using LinkedIn use the recommendations option to ask past employers to give you a reference. This will allow potential hirers to see what it is like to work with you, and can sometimes provide more details than a straightforward HR reference you may obtain which will purely detail the dates of employment.

Aside from LinkedIn, Twitter is also a great platform to connect with like minded professionals, potential employers and recruiters. Organisations and recruitment consultancies are increasingly looking to Twitter to advertise the positions they are working on, and often these jobs will appear on Twitter quicker than they would elsewhere. It is perhaps wise to have a look at the recruiters you are working with and companies you are interested in, and start following their tweets to both interact with them, but also see opportunities. 

The use of social media by hirers and candidates is certainly here to stay -so embrace it! Whilst you hear horror stories of job seekers ruining their career by posting comments that mention their employer in a bad light, those that are wise enough to use social media in the correct way can certainly improve their employment chances in a relatively short space of time.

Robert McLeod

Robert is Financial Services Director at Venn Group, the specialist provider of temporary and interim staff across the UK. Robert has over twelve years’ experience of managing recruitment teams within the financial services sector