Financial services companies
are engaged in a ‘war for talent’ which has driven pay for interim managers who
specialise in risk and compliance work 50 percent higher over the last two
years, says Interim Partners, the leading provider of interim management
solutions.

According to Interim
Partners, interim managers with risk and compliance experience were typically
earning up to £1,000 a day before the credit crunch, but many are now earning
up to £1,500 daily as demand for their skills intensifies. Andrew McIntee, Head
of Financial Services Practice at Interim Partners explains that this increase
in rates for interim managers in risk/credit and compliance reflects a dramatic
overall shift in power to the “middle office” part of banks.

Says Andrew McIntee: “Whilst
all the headlines focus on multi-million pound pay-outs to traders this has
obscured the growing status and authority of the “middle office” within the
investment and retail banks.” He continued, “before the credit crunch
compliance and risk were sometimes seen as a necessary evil and were portrayed
by sales and traders as a costly impediment to writing business – although they
would have used stronger language!”

“Now the value of these
previously unsung heroes is being recognised. They now have more say over what
deals get done than at anytime since the last recession. The amount of US or UK
government help that a bank has had to receive is largely put down either to
the overall strength of their risk management or more specifically to the
doggedness of their credit teams,  their
ability to argue their case convincingly.”