Accounting, Audit, Product Control & Treasury market update
Recruitment trends and skills in demand – half year market update 2011
Finance, accounting and controllers
- In the investment banking sector, there has generally been a focus on replacement and strategic talent hires versus growth and volume hires;
- Having said this, recruitment volumes are actually trending upwards despite hiring freezes at some of the banks that are traditionally large finance recruiters. This reflects a general increase in demand across the board of the sector, including non bank institutions e.g. insurance and buy-side firms. In these latter sectors there is demand for temp and contract accountants as well as permanent staff. The levels are generally below five years PQE, perhaps reflecting more new positions than replacement hires;
- Where it does exist, the highest demand is at AVP and VP equivalent levels, and again a common theme is that high calibre candidates are not very active, or at least playing hard to get;
- Technical areas as always present the most significant challenges to hirers, e.g. credit product control, regulatory risk, technical accounting/IFRS, change/PMO;
- Those firms that have rebased are in the most competitive position in an area where 2010 bonus comp was significantly impacted;
- Shortages of available talent with the specialist skills is impacting the contracting arena, where hiring has continued to be strong in product control across all investment banks. Rates are being driven upwards, particularly in credit and exotic products. Strong product controllers can get multiple offers and take their pick of banks. This marked increase in rates has lead to candidates in trade support and other operational roles attempting to make the transition into product control.
Projects
- Total volume of change management and project recruitment is lower in H1 2011 compared to the same period in 2010, often due to more rigorous approval criteria prior to projects being launched;
- Having said this there is still a high demand. This reflects a common trend across the investment banks of improving system architecture and the front to back data flows, improving management information and management reporting;
- Also, integration work is still a large focus within retail and corporate banks in addition to projects to assist in the divestment of assets for some of the state owned banks;
- Additionally, there is demand for replacement hires on the longer, ongoing projects;
- Requirements to implement the new Basel, solvency and FSA regulations have created demand for candidates across many sectors, particularly insurance, and the resulting shortage of skills is driving rates up.
Treasury
- The market remains very active in the larger banks, with volume hiring at associate to VP levels;
- There is increasing activity in the insurance sector, with particular focus on ALM and capital teams in financial risk management;
- There is a renewed demand for candidates with consultancy/regulatory backgrounds in order to cater for the shortfall elsewhere in the market;
- The graduates of three years ago are starting to realise the value of their decisions to start in treasury programmes;
- Restructures in middle office teams have created new opportunities and the market for candidates is positive;
- In liquidity, the 18 month recruitment boom has slowed to a degree, though accountants with liquidity experience are still the focus of attention;
- There has been a high degree of rotation between the banks of liquidity risk teams;
- We have seen a modest amount of recruitment take place in conventional ALM with most of it having a strong liquidity or interest rate risk management focus, especially in group functions and the retail banking sector.
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