A financial services job that pays well, is getting hotter, and won't be wiped out in a downturn

19 July 2010

2 minute read

A financial services job that pays well, is getting hotter, and won't be wiped out in a downturn

Everyone knows about the US Financial Reform Bill. What is less clear is whether the US Financial Reform Bill will apply in Europe.

The current verdict seems to be that yes, maybe, it will.

"The better view right now, is that the US Financial Reform Bill probably WILL apply extraterritorially," says Ernie Patrikis, a partner in the banking-advisory practice at law firm White & Case LLP and a former general counsel for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

If this is the case, one class of employee can expect to do very, very well in the next few years: the change focused project manager.

Project managers are already incredibly hot

The US Bill requires that banks spin off around 10% of their derivatives trading into separately capitalised entities. It's far less onerous than it could have been but it will require some internal reorganisation, and project managers will be needed to deal with it.

This is fortunate for project managers, who are already enjoying a spate of unprecedented popularity.

"Even last year, when hiring in other areas of investment banking was quiet, we saw a consistently high level of demand for project managers," says Jodie Bowles, a consultant at recruitment firm Badenoch & Clark. "Since then, it's only got higher, with hiring in the first half of 2010 up around 25-30% on the second half of 2009."

They are also fairly well paid

A shortage of good project managers has already shifted their daily rate up from 500-550 a day to 600-700 a day, says Bowles.

Unfortunately, lucrative project management jobs are only really open to people with previous project management experience, not to former front office bankers hoping for a lucrative short term contract.

"Most of the people working in the sector tend to be either former consultants with strong project methodology experience, or former line managers who know the products and have made the move internally," Bowles reveals.

AUTHORSarah Butcher

Global Editor

be
betaadjusted
20 July 2010
And as we've seen with UBS, significant attempts can be made to apply US law even in very independent, foreign jurisdictions (Switzerland) or even US non-law (revealing details of *all* US nationals with bank-accounts in Switzerland, not sure they'd get away with that in a US jurisdiction!) by threatening to hit a company's US operations (which are often very significant/profitable and the loss of which would also have some reputational impact).
Finally, US law is persuasive in a UK court of law where domestic legal principals are unclear. This is rare and tends to happen on cutting edge constitutional matters but none-the-less is not impossible. It would be most likely to happen in the House of Lords (or supreme court or whatever we call it now). So it is incorrect to say that the US' legal influence is completely restricted to its own borders.
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JD
JD
20 July 2010
No, Philpods, but multinational businesses are subject to laws in countries where they do business. Non-European companies' dealings in the EU are subject to EU laws and regulations, e.g US-based Microsoft gets spanked from time to time by Brussels.
Likewise, as the author meant, securities and banking ventures in the US owned by non-US companies, e.g. Barclays, Deutsche Bank, ING, etc. are subject to US financial laws. She simply wonders whether America's new reporting and customer protection rules will require reporting on the reserves, financial health, conflicts of interest, etc. of a whole global enterprise or just its US operations.
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JD
JD
19 July 2010
No, Philpods, but multinational businesses are subject to laws in countries where they do business. Non-European companies' dealings in the EU are subject to EU laws and regulations, e.g US-based Microsoft gets spanked from time to time by Brussels.
Likewise, as the author meant, securities and banking ventures in the US owned by non-US companies, e.g. Barclays, Deutsche Bank, ING, etc. are subject to US financial laws. She simply wonders whether America's new reporting and customer protection rules will require reporting on the reserves, financial health, conflicts of interest, etc. of a whole global enterprise or just its US operations.
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Ph
Philpods
19 July 2010
When will people in this country realise, the only law that applies is UK and EU law. Whatever the US thinks, it does not rule the world and has no jurisdiction whatsoever over here.
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da
davidcrocker
19 July 2010
The last time I managed a project, it was getting the gardener to mow my lawn. He did a terrible job, overcharged and stole a packet of wheat crunchies on his way out. Somehow I think I'm not cut out for project management!
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