Business analysts: Having regulatory skills will help clinch you a contract

Business analysts (BAs) with regulatory-risk and compliance knowledge are in high demand in Australia as financial institutions seek more skills to help them deal with a new range of local and global regulations.

Some of these include National Consumer Credit Protection, Personal Properties Securities Reform, Future of Financial Advice, and the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

“They are particularly driving the need for contractors and fixed-term permanent hires with the understanding of regulatory change, its impacts on an organisation and how to successfully implement the changes into IT systems, business processes and the wider organisation itself,” says Duncan Amos, division director, technology and project services, Bluefin Resources.

However, there is a shortage of business analysts with compliance and regulatory expertise because too many firms want them at the same time. “These regulatory requirements are industry wide and must be complied with, many having set deadlines. The projects are labour intensive, with much of the demand driven by the big four banks due to their sheer size.”

At a time when cost cutting means that contract rates are generally staying steady or even declining, many BAs in this sought-after sector are bucking the trend. “Specific domain experience adds about 15 to 20 per cent to a standard business analyst’s contract rate, although an expert in the field employed at the start of a project could typically earn much more,” says Amos.