Showering money on MiFID contractors

The Financial Services Authority is making 300 staff redundant - perhaps they should reinvent themselves as MiFID specialists?

With implementation of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) just around the corner, it's like Y2K all over again in some quarters - banks are scrambling to get themselves compliant ahead of this November's deadline. And demand for temporary compliance specialists and project managers is sky high.

Recruiter Joslin Rowe says the past two months have seen a 20% increase in the number of temporary compliance specialists recruited onto MiFID-orientated projects - and numbers are rising every week.

An extra 1,200 contractors are required in the City for MiFID projects alone over the next 10 months, Joslin Rowe predicts.

The frenzy has seen contract rates rocketing, with some specialists pocketing as much as 700 to 1,000 a day, savvy permanent staff switching to temporary status, and others being inundated with multiple job offers.

"There is demand from the bottom right to the top. Banks are looking for people with product knowledge plus experience of risk compliance or regulation," says Michelle Myers, compliance recruitment consultant at Joslin Rowe Temporaries.

"They also need to understand the Financial Services Authority (FSA) handbook and the MiFID requirements and be able to handle the deadlines," she adds.

This should come as good news to the 300 staff that the FSA - the UK regulator - is reportedly making redundant over the next years. The bad news is that many of the FSA's unwanted are expected to be IT contractors and may not be able to make the move unless they're endowed with project management skills.