Banks turn to newly qualified accountants to fill their gaps

Accountancy firms say investment banks are poaching their newly qualified junior staff.

Recruiters at two of the big four accountancy firms, KPMG and Ernst & Young, say investment banks are targeting their newly qualified ACA students to fill vacancies in their own junior positions.

Steven Rolls, director of recruiting at Ernst & Young, said the newly qualified accountants are often deluged with telephone calls from headhunters and recruiters urging them to move. He said investment banks are among the main culprits.

'A lot of people get really annoyed by it. They are busy people and they get lots of calls and emails from recruitment companies urging them to move to the banking sector.'

Keith Dugdale, head of recruitment at KPMG, said the firm is bracing itself for investment banks to raid its junior staff next year. 'In six months time, if markets pick up, banks will be coming after ACAs in large numbers. Retention could be a big issue for us in 2004.'

Banks' interest in ACA holders is a headache for accountancy firms, which spend three years training their graduate recruits to pass the qualification, only to have them lured away by offers of higher pay. After three years, the standard salary for a newly qualified ACA in an accounting firm is 35,000 to 40,000. Many investment banks offer graduate recruits a similar salary when they start.

Recruiters say a shortage of junior level corporate finance and equity research staff is already encouraging banks to pursue ACAs with more vigour than in the past. James Health, managing director of Greenwich Partners, a recruitment firm, says he placed five newly qualified ACAs in equity research roles during November alone.

Banks like ACA holders because they are well trained and have easily transferable skills, said Heath: 'They have very strong financial modelling skills and are comfortable with building complicated models. - That is the core skill set for a role in research.'

Peter Padua, manager of the accountancy and finance team at recruitment firm Joslin Rowe, says banks also pursue ACAs for position in credit risk, market risk, product control and financial control. Joslin Rowe is currently advertising for newly qualified ACAs to analyse risk exposure for derivatives products, for a salary of 45,000.

Padua said: 'It's easy to encourage people to move, as long as they are realistic about what roles entail. Banking may offer an excellent career, but there are downsides such as longer hours and very pressurized environment. It is not a 9 to 5 job.'

Dugdale said accountants are responding to the threat by emphasising work life balance, and introducing flexible working arrangements.

Banks' interest in ACAs will come as good news to students who opted for a career in accounting when graduate recruitment schemes were cut, in the hope of switching across to banking when conditions improved. Fiona Sandford, head of the careers service at the London School of Economics, said this has been a popular move during the past few years.