'Tis the season to land a compliance job

December may traditionally be a time when folk concentrate on buying Christmas pressies. But not, it seems, for recruiters trying to fill compliance roles in Scotland.

Compliance-related recruiters report a "hotbed" of activity in most sectors, including asset management, investment, retail banking and insurance.

Consultant Jo Davies recently joined Elements Essential Partners to concentrate on filling the rash of roles. "We've a number of clients who have instructed us to fill Scottish vacancies," she says.

Davies is seeing is a mix of applications, both from within Scotland and from London.

Paul Powell at recruiter PSD Group says Scots financial services compliance specialists are situated as far afield as Ayrshire and Edinburgh and that the market is unseasonally buoyant. "This particular area of financial services is a hotbed of activity, at the very time when the market is quietening down," he adds.

Base salaries for compliance consultants working in Scotland are around 28,000. Compliance managers can earn as much as 45,000.

Avid compliance hiring comes as no surprise to Scottish Financial Enterprise's chief executive Amanda Harvie who points to an increase, for the fifth successive quarter, in business volumes according to the latest SFE/Capgemini survey.

Over 60% of companies are experiencing improvements and nearly half reporting a rise in employee numbers. A mere 3% are making staff reductions.