Shaleen Vimal, Senior Appointments Consultant at Cititec, gives an overview of growth areas within the regulatory change sector:
There is a real focus on Data Integrity and Real-time P+L attribution and trade data/positioning at present. Within the overarching landscape of regulatory change Banks are being required to provide regulatory reports to various regional legislators (FSA/BoE, SEC and ESMA) in regards to their Capital Adequacy (Basel 3) and liquidity status.
This has meant a significant overhaul and renewed investment in Data Storage and distribution. Traditionally Finance IT has been responsible for delivering regulatory reports and therefore the responsibility of delivering the reporting functionality (data distribution) has fallen on them in most instances.
In terms of Data Storage this can be driven by Client/Instrument/Product Data teams or individual business lines (equities, FX, Fixed Income) etc. There seems to be a move in the market to align reference data in particular to a more cross-product based environment rather than having them set up by specific business lines, allowing for greater transparency and control.
Change Managers/Project Managers/Business Analysts/Data Analysts with a Strong technical background in reference data/data consolidation/data re-architecture are in high demand.
There is also a big push for Change Managers or Functional/Process change BA’s in this area.
If the client’s focus is on Client Reference Data then there has been more flexibility in terms of going outside the industry. If however it is on Product/Instrument data side due to the nature of the information being specific to traded banking products there has been less flexibility. Though the way these roles are being recruited mean that Technical SME’s are working much more closely with Business AME’s and as such the functional architecture of the way banks are set up are changing to have greater interaction between the business and I.T
The changing nature of the Derivatives market has meant a real focus in understanding how derivatives contracts are priced and posted on the banks P+L. As such there is real focus on the data supporting the derivative products, Data used in terms of how they are priced and a strong focus on how the Data is gathered, housed and used (pricing and attribution).
Under new regulations there is also a real focus on Client Due diligence and compliance (KYC/AML) driven by the big focus on Counterparty Risk and Liquidity.
In order to up-skill candidates are really focusing on their financial product knowledge which has seen a significant increase in interest in CFA type courses.
From a Change Management perspective there has been a real drive to have certified change delivery individuals (Six Sigma, Lean Etc)…
In summary hard to find skillsets are:
- Change Managers/ Business Process Change Analysts with strong reference Data experience
- Technical PM’s BA’s and Data Analysts with strong technical and change delivery experience and Reference Data.
- Change Managers/ Business Process Change Analysts with strong Finance I.T experience
- Technical PM’s BA’s and Data Analysts with strong technical and change delivery experience in Finance I.T.
- Change Managers/ Business Process Change Analysts with strong compliance experience (KYC/AML)
- Technical PM’s BA’s and Data Analysts with strong compliance experience (KYC/AML)
In terms of Pay Increasing, Yes It has but we have not seen the full extent yet as the Euro Crisis, Vickers Report etc all contributed to the banks holding back on new hires for 2012 across the board essentially they did not want to spend money until they knew where they would have to spend it.
We fully anticipate that pay levels will increase in this area due to the demand for these skill-sets, but in terms of significant changes in these will also be driven by consultancies hiring the same skill-set for the set-up of their new regulatory and compliance practices, which they see as their major streams of revenue over the next few years.
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