OTC derivatives technology jobs; coming to a bank near you

The prospect of shelling out billions on technology related to OTC derivatives regulations continues to linger around investment banks like an unwelcome house guest or a particularly noxious emission.

While banks in the US have started to make provisions for the regulatory-driven centralised clearing of OTC products, those in Europe are lagging behind.

The non-US domiciled banks have so-far "generally adopted a 'wait and see' approach to regulation whereas the majority of larger banks are proactively lobbying, planning, prioritizing and building the necessary capabilities," said Jas Singh, global head of treasury at Thomson Reuters, which recently conducted some research into the subject.

Obviously, banks need to do more than invest in technology in order to comply with these regulatory changes (and this already creating jobs), but it's a key concern nonetheless.

Kevin McPartland, principal and director of fixed income research at Tabb Group, said that OTC derivative reforms will mean that firms spend "several billion dollars" on IT related to clearing.

From a technology hiring point of view, the gears are slowing grinding into place at some investment banks, and projects are starting to kick off. So far, much of the recruitment of technologists (on a permanent basis) is centred around project managers and business analysts.

Barclays Capital, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and UBS all have vacancies in this area currently.

These roles aren't particularly well-paid and both project managers and business analysts should expect 60-70k.

"Project managers and business analysts are hired at the beginning of the project lifestyle and the development and other technology roles follow soon afterwards," says Anthony Besant, a manager in banking IT at Hudson.

For developers, there is (perhaps predictably) more movement in the contractor market. Again, comparatively speaking, though, these roles are not particularly lucrative - day rates are currently hovering between 450-650, according to recruiters.