​During the first quarter of 2021, we experienced a 137% uplift in client Perm & Contract hires within the Financial Crime, Regulatory Compliance and Risk space across the UK vs Q1 in 2020. Below, we round up some key themes:

Tant treds

• Sharp increase in senior permanent hires across Risk and Financial Crime Compliance, we experienced a 301% increase vs Q1 in 2020.
  
  
• Significant rise in FTC vacancies as firms look to fill gaps on a temporary basis but are opting to go less for inside IR35 contract arrangements for all but the most specialist of roles.
  
  
• Senior permanent salaries coming in lower than prior years as firms appear to have recognised that there is a large pool of senior candidates available - this approach has had mixed results thus far particularly where a candidate is presently in a position.
  
  
• More Contractors seeking Permanent opportunities – Because of the impact of IR35 and the ever-increasing tax burden on limited company contractors.
  
  
• Significant drop in contract requirements in the ‘Generalist Compliance’ space as IR35 takes hold, firms appear for the most part more reluctant to hire in contract resource for all but the most specialist of FCC and Risk requirements.
  
  
• FLOD - Building Risk & Financial Crime “Operations” teams has been a focus as a result of our industry digitising.
  
  
• Flexible working post lockdown - Most firms intend to or have already implemented a BAU flexible working policy averaging 2/3 office days per week WFH.
• If your organisation hasn’t already made plans surrounding this it is clear that candidates in the market are expecting guidance on what an organisation's flexible working policy will be, post lockdown.
• Flexibility will allow you to achieve higher offer to acceptance ratios, whilst also enabling you to tap into skill sets that may not exist in your region, otherwise be hard to come by salary-wise (key consideration for all candidates, but particularly those who are weighing up multiple offers).
  
  
• Regulatory professionals being open to sectors outside of FS such as I&C, FMCG, Gaming etc - This is an emerging theme that will no doubt assist in 'raising the regulatory bar'.

Growth areas

• Surge in the uptake of new Financial Crime Management systems particularly End to End, as firms look to remove “clunkiness”, duplication, embrace AI, digitise, improve reporting efficiency and decrease errors in the FLOD, allowing for specialist resource to focus on mid-high risk client reviews, compliance monitoring etc.
• We have spoken to several new entrants to the FCC and Risk systems market some of which offer end to end solutions that appear to have been well received particularly by small and mid-sized FS and I&C organisations.
• Should your organisation be about to embark on a Vendor selection exercise feel free to reach out to Hydrogen or our consulting arm Project Partners.
  
  
• Compliance opportunities on the rise - Retail / Consumer Finance Lenders, Authorised Payments Institutions & eMoney Institutions / any new entrants to FS sectors. These have primarily been in the Compliance Monitoring & Assurance space, although we have also experienced an openness to take on Compliance Juniors and promising graduates.
  
  
• Data Protection Perm - Another area that has peaked appears to be Brexit related and we shortly expect salaries to rise in these areas having experienced salaries and day rates fluctuate in the past 12 months.

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If you’d like to discuss any of these themes in more detail, or how they are impacting your business specifically, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team.