Recruitment Market Update 2024 – Compliance & Financial Crime

Key trends in compliance & financial crime recruitment

Senior-level recruitment challenges

Recruiting for senior compliance jobs has become increasingly difficult. The FCA strongly prefers that SMF 16 and SMF 17 vacancies are filled by people who have previous experience in those roles. This limits the available talent pool and potentially degrades it, as the market includes individuals who gained promotion to that level when the regulator was more forgiving and strong candidates were in short supply.

While the FCA can approve appointments without prior registration to SMF 16 or SMF 17 roles, it is much harder to do so and there is a clear incentive to recruit from the talent pool of candidates with existing experience.

Emphasis on cost control

It has been difficult for financial services businesses to increase sales and revenue over the last 12+ months, invariably leading to a focus on controlling costs. All compliance teams are now stretched, as budgets have been cut and replacement hires are delayed wherever possible.

Heads of Compliance are becoming uncomfortable with both the level of capability in their function and the prevailing culture among leadership and the Board, with seemingly little understanding of the role of compliance as a business enabler and protector.

A similar cost control trend has emerged in financial crime. Nervousness around business prospects has curtailed activities and big projects have come to an end. The roles that are available involve re-hiring for positions that either became vacant or were created by amalgamation – few new positions are hitting the market.

Financial crime is highly cyclical, however. Invariably, financial crime recruitment is prioritised after a regulatory intervention or fine. People are recruited, the problem is addressed, and then, as trading takes a dip, this resource is released. As a result, financial crime functions become under-resourced, and the cycle starts again.

Recent comments from senior in-house practitioners and leaders in the world of financial crime consultancy indicate that large fines and regulatory sanctions are on the horizon. We therefore expect the flow of financial crime jobs to improve as we head into 2025.

Fraud as a driver of demand

Significant investment has been made into measures that combat retail fraud, and the Economic Crime and Transparency Bill (ECTB) is focusing managers’ attention on the level of responsibility they hold for customer decisions.

Credit card companies are well versed in deploying sophisticated analytics to identify suspicious transactions in real-time, but retail banks have been slower on the uptake. Many firms are yet to provide similar levels of protection to their bank account holders. The ECTB is likely to ensure this disparity in customer protection is addressed with enhanced levels of transaction monitoring and risk profiling, which is likely to create new opportunities in these areas moving forward.

Salary trends in compliance & financial crime recruitment

Salaries across compliance and financial crime have held steady. There is no downward pressure on salary levels, and while there have been some redundancies, these have been limited to more senior roles. Meanwhile, salary levels in insurance have risen, reflecting the pressure to catch up with the banking sector on the conduct issues that are driving demand.

For professionals who are considering switching roles, salary increases of approximately 15% are achievable, with 10% considered the minimum. These raises are respectable but remain lower than the 20-25% increases witnessed in our salary surveys from previous years. In-house salary improvements have been less impressive, averaging around 5-7%.