Wanted: Techies to beat financial crime

With fraud and money laundering on the up in the current climate and banks focusing on cost-cutting, an increasing number are turning to IT solutions to combat financial crime. And this is creating job opportunities for techies with experience in this area.

"Financial crime is no longer simply about the laundering or theft of money. It is about high profile issues such as customer data theft, financial misreporting, and many others," says Jaroslaw Knapik, financial services technology analyst at Datamonitor.

He says that the downturn is likely to result in a growing number of internal and external fraud threats. This is putting strain on the AML/anti-fraud departments of the banks, which are experiencing shrinking budgets and reduced staff numbers.

Technology is therefore playing a more pivotal role.

"There is a growing opportunity for business and technology consultants or vendors that can improve a bank's understanding of the full range of anti-financial crime related processes which exist across the entire organization," says Knapik.

Mark Bown, managing consultant, security investigations assessment at computer forensics firm 7Safe, says the firm has seen an upturn in business from retail banks looking at security solutions over the medium to long-term.

"To work in this sector you have to have a broad understanding of a variety of technologies in order to be able jump in and investigate what the problem is," he says. "But the main skill is having an inquisitive mindset."

Rajeena Brar, banking consultant at Pierre Audoin Consultants, says: "Though we're anticipating an overall decrease in technology spend among banks, security and fraud detection is an area we're expecting an increase. There will be job opportunities around developing business intelligence technologies going forward."

One problem is that the bulk of jobs being created are within the third-party IT vendors, who are developing this specialist technology which is both cheaper and more convenient for the banks.

There are, however, some opportunities within the banks themselves.

Dominic Hilleard, director at tech recruiters Cyberteam Resourcing, says he's seen an upturn in demand for both perm and contract staff in this area.

"One client in particular has increased their technology spend in this area by upwards of 50% for this year alone compared to last year," he claims.