Goldman Sachs and others are automating their compliance jobs

Like it or not, the compliance hiring boom is almost certainly over. After years of hiring and spending and regulatory appeasement, banks are going all out to cut compliance costs through automation.

J.P. Morgan CFO Marianne Lake said as much during the call accompanying last week's fourth quarter results. J.P. Morgan's spending on all controls has increased by $3bn over the past "several years", said Lake, but this is now expected to start "bending down" as J.P. Morgan's processes "mature" and are automated.

J.P.M. isn't the only bank with an eye on compliance and control costs. Last December, Credit Suisse said compliance costs had plateaued, while a report from McKinsey & Co. suggested that all efforts now are on automating the regulatory functions rather than showering them with additional money and headcount.

This being the case, the contemporary army of compliance monitoring and control room professionals might want to learn how to code: the new compliance jobs are not the same as the old ones.

Goldman Sachs is a case in point. The firm is currently looking for at least four people to join a new regulatory operations team in its Warsaw technology hub. Candidates need to be experts in programming and big data. Previous compliance experience is not necessary.

Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com

Photo credit: We are the robots by Duncan Hull is licensed under CC BY 2.0.