INTRODUCTION
It has been encouraging to see that Q4 has continued its momentum and we have been busy across both Financial Crime and Compliance. The Compliance desk at Bruin was becoming increasingly demanding and we were beginning to be stretched therefore we have bolstered our team to ensure we have the capacity to provide that excellent service we strive for in every interaction. The sheer volume and range of roles we have seen in Q4 gives me confidence that Compliance remains a priority and our clients are continuing to grow their functions. The buoyant market has led to candidates have numerous options and we are seeing “speed of process” being the key reason as to why clients are getting the top tier candidates they sought.
ROLE PROFILES
Q4 has continued with the trend of firms splitting their Compliance and Financial Crime teams. There has been a continued emphasis of needing strong AML candidates who have experience in building the Financial Crime Framework. Q4 has seen the revival of the need of strong senior Surveillance candidates, an area which has been relatively quiet throughout the early part of the year, has seen a surge in Q4 and I suspect this to continue into Q1 of 2022. Q4 has seen demand across compliance as a whole: we have seen KYC/AML officers, Compliance Advisory, Compliance Monitoring, Distribution Compliance and Portfolio Compliance roles. As firms continue to work towards meeting ESG requirements we has seen an increased need of candidates with ESG experience/exposure.
Compliance Monitoring/Surveillance
This has continued to be busy space across both buy-side and sell-side clients. The most sought after skillset at the moment appears to be knowledge of MAR and exposure to Thematic reviews and these have been on repeat when speaking to clients. There is a requirement of industry experience with a personable nature, these teams collaborate with different departments across the business and they need to be able to build strong relationships with senior stakeholders and confident in being able to face-off to SME’s within technical areas of the business. Our investment banking clients have expressed interest in candidates who have specific product knowledge and who can conduct reviews within the designated FICC & Equities teams. Once again they will need to understand the products and stakeholders they are engaging with as this requires previous exposure to these products. Surveillance candidates with strong technical knowledge of broking and tradeable products are sought after.
Senior Compliance Officers
There has been an increased demand specifically on the buy-side for well-rounded senior Compliance Officers. The requirement for candidates with 5 to 8 years’ experience across monitoring and regulatory compliance has been sought after in the latter end of Q4. I fully suspect this to be prevalent in Q1. Compliance generalist who are able to add value to existing processes and hit the ground running have been sought after due to a busy period limiting the offering of support and training.
Distribution Compliance
Specific to the buy-side firms, we have seen a strong demand for senior Distribution candidates and this has been across both the Mid Senior and Senior range. Strong experience to Financial Promotions across EMEA has been desirable.
Financial Crime
As we touched on earlier, we are seeing an increase of firms restructuring and splitting their compliance and Financial Crime functions, this has led to an increase in MLRO’s with strong experience in building the FinCrime Framework. The requirement has been more aligned to deputies to looking to grow into an MLRO. Candidates who have previously, or are keen to hold the SM17 and look to grow the function.
We have had both newly created and replacement roles across Asset Management, Investment Banking and Brokerage firms. We have seen both permanent and Fixed Term Contract roles this quarter and this has been across the board from Onboarding, KYC Analyst to MLRO. Firms are setting up to bolster their teams with strong attention on candidates with strong AML, AB&C and Sanctions experience. Candidates with hands on experience in building/improving Frameworks are highly sought after along with Generalist Financial Crime Compliance candidates.
Remuneration
Generally speaking the market rate for candidates have remained steady despite the shift to a candidate led market. Within the Mid-Senior to Senior range I seem to be having less conversations negotiating salaries as the candidates motivators are focused around growth and development. However, through the latter part of Q4 and moving into Q1 we are increasingly starting to hear the mention of bonuses, with multiple clients explaining they are prepared to buy these out due to the current fast paced candidate market.
Clients approach to Agile working has also played a key role in whether candidates would consider opportunities.
In a hiring market as competitive as this one, it is important for firms to ensure that the vacancies they are looking to fill are top of the priority list of the external recruiters they engage. As a team with over 25 years combined experience, and a consistent track record of delivery over the last decade, our team are currently in a privileged position of having a large volume of mandates to source for. It should come as no surprise that higher resource allocation will be given to those mandates which maximise potential revenue. There are three ways for clients to ensure that their roles are being prioritised: higher fee percentages; vacancy exclusivity and retained fee structures.
Higher fee percentages is attractive for firms recruiting on a contingent basis, and in candidate-short markets it’s important that firms are competitive with their peers and rewarding of the recruiters time in cultivating a network through years and years of relationship building in the market.
Vacancy exclusivity (where “exclusivity” = sole agency mandated to source candidates for the position where no agency search has already taken place) ensures that the recruiting firm can take time to provide an in-depth search of the market before presenting tailored shortlists of ideas, knowing that there aren’t multiple other agencies trying to speak to exactly the same people about the exact same job, which cheapens the brand image of the firm. A candidate saying “you’re the third agency who’s contacted me about this role” doesn’t make anyone look good, and can significantly confuse the narrative around a hire, which reduces chances of a successful filling of the vacancy.
Retained fee structures cover the costs of a recruiters’ time, show commitment from the client to filling the vacancy, and cement standards for both sides to be held accountable to during the process. With an up-front fee, the recruiter has been paid for their time up-front, and will prioritise the vacancy over others.