UBS's risk team is set for a shake-up, just as risk recruitment turns anaemic
UBS has been keen to avoid placing blame on its risk team for the 1.3bn rogue trading incident, but the division still looks set for a shake-up. From a jobs perspective, this creates both an opportunity and a threat.
Sergio Ermotti, the bank's interim chief executive, has pointed out that "unauthorized or unexplained activity" was detected by its risk systems (but not acted upon) and, more recently, described the incident as being like "one or two pilots sitting in a cockpit seeing a warning light and still deciding to fly".
There's currently little evidence, in London at least, that any risk employees are falling on their swords in the manner of senior equity professionals at UBS. However, recruiters tell us that they're now seeing a decent number of CVs from redundant UBS risk managers, but this is down to the job cuts announced in August, rather than any fallout from the Kweku Adoboli case.
Last month, however, it admitted "management has determined that certain internal controls were not effective on December 31, 2010". A shake-up is coming.
UBS is currently recruiting for a "change and support analyst" for its risk controls operations division, which, it says, "safeguards the global reputation and preserves the long-term interests of UBS".
Still, the role is less important than the fact the job description states the risk controls are "currently going through significant strategic and transformational change programmes of work, incorporating complete re-platforming and re-definition of associated business processes".
This suggests that any under-performing risk managers could be stripped out, but also signifies a desire to both recruit some new blood into the organisation and a need to hire (yet more) change management professionals.
Risk recruitment is now looking decidedly frosty
Unfortunately for any risk professionals finding themselves on the market, the high levels of recruitment over the last 18 months has finally slowed down.
At our recent roundtable event with large investment banks' heads of HR, the sentiment was that 2012 will be a barren year for risk recruitment. After a sustained period of active hiring throughout 2011, most banks are now looking to let new recruits "bed in", they suggested.
Adrian Marples, consultant focusing on risk at executive search firm Leathwaite, is also expecting a slow year.
"The regulator will frown upon any large cuts to risk functions, but the fact remains that they are supporting divisions that are being scaled down," he says. "I'm expecting a more ad hoc approach or roles driven by regulatory pressure rather than the large-scale recruitment drives of recent years."
All banks have largely stopped hiring for risk currently, but this is likely to lead to a bottle neck of recruitment in the first quarter of 2012, says Priya Mariannie, senior risk consultant at recruiters PSD Group.
"Some banks' risk departments are still understaffed, so there remains a requirement to recruit, despite the current hiring freezes," she says. "Therefore, we're expecting relatively aggressive levels of recruitment in the first quarter of next year."
If you're looking for a risk role right now, your best bet is the UK banks - think, HSBC, RBS and Standard Chartered, say recruitment sources.
