Q1 Financial Crime Hiring. Not your usual start to the year

Q1 is when recruiters are hustling (read, pestering clients) to get client meetings to assess what hiring is predicted for the upcoming year. This is usually one of my favourite times of year - gossip central.

If you're a hiring manager, you will notice the ol' "catch up" emails / calls around this time. This year, dear reader was different...

"It's raining Jobs, Hallelujah, it's raining jobs"

This is what most FCC recruiters were singing to themselves for the last 3 months, while simultaneously having kittens at the sheer workload.

This year, clients were coming to us ready with job specs, interview availability and lots of "no more than a 1 month notice" urgency from the first week in January.

So, where were these jobs you ask?

Well, I was happily proven wrong on my prediction that we would be working high volume FCC ops roles.

While we did have 2 large temp projects kick off (Ian Christie, my contract counterpart was very busy with TM builds), I was actually kept busy with my old friends FCC advisory, MLRO and FCC policy.

Let me break it down by sector:

FinTech's:

The bad boys of financial crime have already really ramped up this year. Not only are they finally hiring MLRO's past the age of 25, but they are doing some incredible things in terms of structuring their financial crime teams.

FinTech are busy building their 2LOD. This level is traditionally lean in FinTech (they typically have large FCC ops functions, supported by MLRO and maybe a deputy), but we are starting to see the mirroring of traditional roles with advisory and policy people in high demand.

They are on the look out for (outside of their competitor pool) people with correspondent banking, NBFI, Crypto or other similar products. Traditional banking candidates who were quite hesitant to move into this sector not too long ago, are banging down my imaginary door*.

Why are they suddenly hiring strong MLRO's and mirroring traditional functions?

Well I couldn't possibly divulge... but I will say, if you're looking to IPO, you tend to get an audit into your financial crime functions which can result in "recommendations".

Bulge Bracket (HSBC, Barclays etc.)

Ah, the dormant beast. Obviously in 2020 they were quite busy with redundancies, strategy and general mish-mashing of functions. They have not come to me with job specs, interview times or any kind of urgency. They are just in this list so I don't get a comments from someone calling me a dummy for missing them off the list ?? I don't think we will see a lot of hiring in these guys this year.

Mid-size (Deutsche Bank, MUFG etc.)

This market has been BUSY and will be the market makers this year, mark my words. There is some top tier gossip and movements for this sector which I wish I could tell you directly, but I think it will be common knowledge by the end of this quarter anyway.

Initially the highest volume will be in financial crime change for 1LOD, and large 1LOD contractor numbers in two of the bigger firms. I shan't be naming which banks here because a lady never kisses and tells (and my competitors might be reading this).

Tips for this sector - the movement will be quick and you will need to be pointed in your application. Start looking at your CV now, if you haven't already, and ensure you have product knowledge scattered throughout as SMEs will be preferred.

Brokerage / Payments

I might start calling this sector "Brexit" as it has been so impacted by the change. We are seeing lots of European languages needed, lots of in-country hiring for Europe and similar to the FinTech sector, a realisation they need to shift into hiring advisory and policy.

These have been interestingly, one of the slow adaptors of WFH, and will be looking to bring their workforces back into the office, more full time than anyone else. I bring this up, as it will mean, most likely, people will start looking for new roles.

MLRO:

Not a sector, but deserves its own title because this quarter there are a large number of new MLRO's sliding into seats.

The usually are hired to fix something, or find something to fix anyway and this means headcount in both temp and perm.

Facts and Stats:

Here are some facts and stats to anchor what I am saying around how busy this market is:

• On average we register 2 -3 jobs a week, this year it has been 4 - 8 per week and this is continuing.
• There has been a 200%+ (yes that is correct) increase in applications per job. This tells us that people are ready to move, and the circle of recruitment life will kick off again.
• 17 new MLRO's are starting this month.
• My contract counterpart Ian Christie has already placed large numbers temps into different clients and is about to pick up 2 more projects.
• Remember the "no more than 1 month notice" comment at the start of the article, this is almost unanimous on all job remits. The pace of the market has completely changed.
• Over the last year, time to hire (taking on a remit, to placement) has decreased on average by 2.5 weeks. Most likely attributed to video interviews making times more accessible, but is worth noting for your search.

That, dear reader, is your quarter one update. I hope it was useful and reminds how lucky we are to be working in a market and a sector which has remained busy throughout a challenging year.

If you are looking to hire for your function, and want some tips on the best time to attack which talent pools, drop me a note and can share some tips.

Please comment or share below!

Jess

*A word of warning here friends, many traditional banking candidates are very keen to move into this newish sector, but the packages are structured very differently - make sure you ask about benefits in detail. Base salaries are usually lower and so are benefits BUT you might get equity and a much more dynamic role and environment.