Is this the hottest skillset in the City right now?

Forget equity research or prime brokerage sales, the most sellable skillset in the City this summer may be knowledge of IFRS 9 accounting rules.

The new accounting standard replaces the old IAS 39 guidelines for measuring and valuing financial instruments. Although implementation is only mandated from 2013, earlier adoption is entirely permissible.

"IFRS knowledge is the new hot topic," says Elan Diamond, manager of the permanent banking team at recruitment firm Marks Sattin. "There tend to be a lot of people coming out of consultancy or practice with IFRS implementation skills, but there's a real shortage of experienced individuals from the financial services sector who've actually worked with the new IFRS rules.

"These are the people banks are really interested in," he adds.

Under IFRS 9, accountants apply different measures to determining whether an asset should be valued at amortised cost, or at fair value. A new 'business model test' helps determine whether the assets being valued are held for the purpose of collecting contractual cash flows (in which case they're valued at the amortised cost), or held for the purpose of selling before maturity to realise changes in the fair value.

Diamond says individuals familiar with the new rules can command a premium.

"A newly qualified accountant with knowledge of IFRS can get 50-55k, instead of 45-50k. Someone with around three years' experience can expect a salary of around 70k," he asserts.

Not everyone's convinced IFRS 9 is hot right now, however. Ben Bonny, a manager at recruiter Robert Walters, says it's coming, but hasn't hit yet. "With the impending changeover from IAS 39 to IFRS 9, we anticipate an increase in demand for individuals with the technical expertise to aid in this transition," he ponders.