eFinancialCareers

With commodities trading volumes and oil prices soaring, demand for commodities-focused product controllers is escalating.

Zachary Meade, manager at FSS City, says, “My clients say they’re focusing on growing their commodities business after taking hits from the credit crunch – and where they’re pushing in the front office, product control needs naturally follow.”

With commodities people scarce, product controllers from other areas are welcome: “It’s a question of how complex their experience is – banks will pay top dollar for more exotic exposure,” says Meade. “But they also need to show they’re clued up on the market, and that they have the desire – and don’t see product control as merely a stepping stone.”

Although basic salaries stack up well – £50k to £55k for newly qualifieds, £65k for assistant VPs and from £75k for VPs – bonus figures are currently unpredictable. “We’ve heard 10-50% but it depends on how much a bank’s written off during the third quarter and might have to write off this quarter,” says Ketan Gohil of Martin Ward Anderson. “Many say they’ve already put bonus money aside before the credit crunch – but various stories are going round about that.”

Employers are even looking outside the City for recruits, says Meade: “There’s still a need for newly qualifieds from practice but they tend to start with more vanilla areas – so banks are directly targeting people in similar roles in energy companies. They can easily transfer into product control within oil or even precious metals and earn £10k more; it’s an attractive option.”