Salary survey: Compliance fixed income specialists needed

After yo-yoing between booming demand and downsizing, recruitment for compliance jobs is now more stable. However, recruitment firms say there is a shortage of compliance product specialists, particularly in fixed income.

Teresa Nixon, a consultant at IMS, said investment banks in London are looking for a new breed of product specialist: 'Redundancies eliminated a lot of the old school compliance generalists. Banks are now looking for people with product and business knowledge who can communicate with the front office.'

Lee Higgins, head of compliance at McGregor Boyall, another recruiter, said staff with fixed income knowledge are particularly needed: 'Banks have started to hire again and everyone is looking for compliance staff in fixed income.'

Higgins said the shortage of product knowledge meant banks are occasionally willing to look at candidates from the front office, for whom moving into compliance can be a way of side-stepping retirement. But it happens rarely: 'Banks usually prefer to find people with relevant experience.'

Higher pay may tempt generalists into product roles. A salary survey by Robert Walters, a recruitment company, found that product specialists working alongside front office staff in equities or fixed income are paid more generalists.

Robert Walters said equity compliance specialists with more than six years' experience can expect salaries of 72,000 to 95,000 (€108,000 - €162,000) while similarly qualified fixed income specialists can expect 83,000 to 100,000. This compared to salaries of 35,000 to 75,000 paid to compliance generalists with about the same experience..

Chris Hickey, director of legal and compliance recruitment at Robert Walters, said bonuses paid to product specialists tend to be better as well: 'Someone working at a US bank supporting the equity derivatives function might get a bonus of 50% of their salary. But most compliance bonuses are equivalent to 25% to 30% of salary.

A survey by the recruitment firm Morgan McKinley suggested compliance pay is less generous. From interviews with 300 job seekers in the past year, Morgan McKinley said salaries for compliance staff with four to eight years' experience working in equities and fixed income divisions were typically 60,000 to 70,000. This was still more than the 45,000-plus received by compliance generalists, however.

Both Morgan McKinley and Robert Walters said money laundering staff can expect their pay to rise in future. Morgan McKinley found money laundering experts with up to eight years' experience can already expect salaries of up to 80,000, while Robert Walters said they reached 100,000.

Hickey said: 'People working in money laundering are now more liable for their mistakes. Pay is higher to reflect that.'

Peter Breeze, a senior consultant at Morgan McKinley, said that together with compliance specialists focused on fixed income and OTC products, money laundering was one of the hot areas for hiring: 'Demand is probably outstripping available supply. There is a lack of active job seekers, but plenty of passive people who will need to be approached.'

Money laundering specialists with up to two years experience can earn salaries of 25,000 to 45,000, or 12 to 16 an hour on a temporary basis, said Robert Walters. This compared to salaries of 25,000 to 35,000 for junior compliance staff in equities.

However Nixon at IMS said banks' demand for junior money laundering staff has fallen and that many graduates who worked as temporary staff in that area are searching for permanent jobs:

'Banks took on hundreds of graduates on a temporary basis to do a huge amount of remedial work, checking anti-money laundering information on clients. A lot of people saw it as a backdoor into the City. Money laundering work has now fallen off.'