Where it's possible to earn 1,000 a day in Scottish financial services

Scotland's insurance firms, faced with the daunting prospect of preparing for Solvency II regulation, are scrambling to recruit actuaries, risk managers and regulatory accountants and are willing to pay up to 1,000 a day for the right skill-set.

Solvency II might not need to be implemented until November 2012, but it's a complex task that will take insurance firms some time to comply with. In short, it aims to strengthen the capital requirements and risk management practices of all insurance and reinsurance firms with an annual premium income that exceeds €5m.

Getting to grips with it requires the recruitment of actuaries, project and programme managers, regulatory accountants and risk managers. According to recruitment sources, there are as many as 100 live roles related to Solvency II in within Scotland's large insurance firms.

Particularly troublesome, is the need to recruit relatively scarce actuarial talent. There are estimated to be just 9,000 qualified actuaries in the UK, and insurance firms are competing with investment banks, life insurance companies and investment consultancies for their services.

"Most insurance firms in Scotland are looking after their actuaries well, and many are tied into three months notice periods," says Mike Stirton, associate director, financial services at Change Recruitment in Edinburgh. "For Solvency II projects, there's an immediate requirement, and this means companies are therefore looking to recruit on an interim basis. Such is the demand, the right people can more or less name their price."

The upper limit for an actuary with regulatory experience is a rather impressive 1,000 a day, which is significant when you consider the permanent salaries on offer. According to figures from The Actuarial Profession, a starting salary for a qualified actuary is 43,930, which rises to 184,034 for a chief actuary, senior partner.

"Any contracts related to Solvency II, which usually start out at six months, are being rolled on," says Scott Maxwell, principal consultant, accounting and financial services at Hudson in Edinburgh. "What's more if a candidate does secure a new contract they're often being counter-offered by their current employer, which is pushing day rates up."

Pay for risk managers, regulatory accountants and project and programme managers around Solvency II change management is anything between 400-500 a day, he adds.