eFinancialCareers

Banks are still eager for contract accountants. They’re getting a bit more choosy about who they hire though.

“Three or four banks have permanent headcount freezes on – but if they’re rolling out strategic projects, they need to hire temps to complete the work,” says Matthew Wilcox of Marks Sattin.

Unsurprisingly, product accountants are thriving, according to Victoria Walmsley of Morgan McKinley: “Heightened focus on control infrastructure integrity means those with complex product knowledge and independent price verification experience are in high demand. Pressure on this candidate pool is also coming from the buy side, with fund managers wanting them for derivatives valuation projects.”

Other recruiters complain that banks are unnecessarily dragging their feet, with line managers at Merrill Lynch, for example, becoming “more picky”, and roles taking longer for sign-off there because of budgetary constraints. UBS is said to have set maximum rates to control costs, and HSBC has attempted to squeeze rates to offset a higher percentage of contractors on-site than management used to tolerate pre-credit crunch.

But there are still some banks prepared to pay generously. “Candidates have come in saying they won’t pay me the same rate any more,” says one source. “But other banks have been perfectly willing to step in and pay for those services.”

Operational risk contractors are emerging as post-SocGen winners, even at otherwise temp-averse employers, completing a somewhat mixed picture. “We’ve recently had a role paying up to £450 a day for someone with two to three years’ pqe,” says Wilcox. “The permanent equivalent would only be £65k-£70k.”