2015 salary survey - accounting and finance

www.michaelpage.co.uk

Accounting & Finance

the outlook For 2015

Financial Sector Employees | The outlook for 2015

Contents

Accounting & finance, banking & financial services – permanent 1

Product control and valuations, banking & financial services – permanent 2

Accounting & finance, investment management – permanent 3

Accounting & finance, banking & financial services – temporary 4

Accounting & finance, investment management – temporary 5


1

Accounting & finance, banking & financial services – permanent

Banking & Financial Services as a long-established team continued to grow in 2014, specialising from Director to Newly Qualified level Accountants. Key focuses for us continue to be multinational banking organisations, mid-tier and smaller tier houses which all range between universal banking, investment banking, corporate and wholesale banking, retail banking, card and payments and merchant acquiring. We have also enjoyed a strong rate of success in brokerage and commodities trading firms as well despite a more turbulent marketplace.

Our clients in this market have undergone an enormous change over the year culminating in a more ethical, diverse and values-driven agenda required of its employees and interviewees. It has meant a change in working practices across the whole suite of banking activities in London and globally, a greater emphasis (that is set to continue into 2015 and beyond) on regulatory reporting changes, capital management rules and accounting policy IFRS reforms, the control environment around the balance sheet, the way in which profitability is stressed tested or assessed in RWA and further to drive down cost. These are the areas that we have been busy hiring in 2014 and we expect this to maintain momentum well beyond the new year 2015 with mandates already received in many cases.

Salary inflation in 2014 has grown which means that pay has turned a positive corner from former years. This is likely to happen again in 2015. A tough five years of salary freezes and lower bonuses have eased. Our clients are more aware now than ever of counter-offers; the need to retain vital finance employees.

Role accounting policy/technical accounting Experience Salary (£)Likely salary uplift (%’age)

2014 bonuslow (%’age)

2014 bonus med (%’age)

2014 bonus high (%’age)

Associate (or equivalent) 1-3 years’ 50,000-55,000 0-10 0 0-10 20

Manager/associate vice president (or equivalent) 3-6 years’ 55,000-70,000 0-12 0 0-10 20

Senior manager/vice president (or equivalent) 6-10 years’ 75,000-90,000 0-15 0 0-20 30

Senior vice president/department head (or equivalent) 15+ years’ 90,000-150,000 0-15 0 15-20 30

Role financial control/management accountant Experience Salary (£)Likely salary uplift (%’age)

2014 bonus low (%’age)







Role regulatory reporting/regulatory projects Experience Salary (£)Likely salary uplift (%’age)








For more information, please contact Jonathan Gilmore:

t: 020 7645 1462

e: [email protected]

w: www.michaelpage.co.uk/bankingandfinancialservices


2

Product control and valuations, banking & financial services – permanent

Product control and valuations hiring reduced this year compared to 2012, though it has been more active in the second half of the year.

Many large banks have completed their off-shoring and near-shoring initiatives with well-established headcounts in locations such as Poland, Hungary, India and the Philippines. In addition, Tier 1 banks have stepped up their efforts with internal mobility and direct candidate sourcing.

As a result, typical external hiring has been related to technical areas, such as IPV methodology, valuation model review, and hybrid roles in product control/trading market risk. These tend to be replacement roles at AVP or VP levels, as incumbents in these specialist roles have moved internally for more technical areas such as quant or market risk. The talent pool for such candidates is very limited. The Government’s withdrawal of the Tier 1 Highly Skilled Migrant Program since April 2011 has negatively impacted the talent pool in this area.

2013 bonuses reported typically ranged between 0% and 20%, but less instances of zero bonus reported by prospective candidates in comparison to previous year. Given the relatively low level of bonus, many candidates have been prepared to move to a new role for an uplift in base salary. For 2014 the compensation outlook looks similar.

From a recruitment perspective, we anticipate that areas requiring a higher degree of specialisation (e.g. IPV methodology valuation model review, model validation) will continue to be the focus.

Role product control Experience Salary (£)Likely salary uplift (%’age)




Analyst 1-3 years’ 38,000-50,000 2 0 5 10

Associate 3-6 years’ 48,000-65,000 2 0 5 10

Manager/associate vice president (or equivalent) 6+ years’ 65,000-75,000 2 0 5 10

Senior manager/vice president (or equivalent) 10+ years’ 75,000-110,000 0-4 0 10 25

Senior vice president/department head (or equivalent) 15+ years’ 110,000-150,000 0-4 0 10 30

For more information, please contact omisha Jethwa:

t: 020 7645 1462



Role valuation/IPV Experience Salary (£)Likely salary uplift (%’age)




Analyst 1-3 years’ 45,000-55,000 5-10 0 10 15

Associate 3-6 years’ 55,000-70,000 5-10 0 10 15

Manager/associate vice president (or equivalent) 6+ years’ 65,000-75,000 5-15 0 15 20

Senior manager/vice president (or equivalent) 10+ years’ 75,000-110,000 5-20 0 20 30

Senior vice president/department head (or equivalent) 15+ years’ 110,000-150,000 5-20 0 30 40


3

Accounting & finance, investment management – permanent

The Investment Management Finance team focuses on recruiting Newly Qualified Accountants up to CFO level. We specialise in assisting buy side firms with their Finance hiring needs on a permanent basis working with firms from start up stage to the well established Investment Management firms in London.

Finance recruitment within Investment Management showed growth on 2013 almost immediately with a steady increase in hiring in Q1 2014 as a result of more fund raising activity throughout the sector. This resurgence of confidence has led to some firms concentrating on adding senior finance staff which is directly at contrast with hiring patterns in recent years where firms tended to hire at a more junior level.

Hiring at the Newly Qualified level was still quite active, particularly among expanding smaller firms where they expect to see the increase in activity to continue in 2015 – there is definitely still a focus on “hiring for potential” within these expanding firms.

2014 saw the return to the market of the larger Investment Management firms hiring more senior roles where there was significant demand within Financial Control – candidates with an all encompassing skill set rather than a narrow focus were the preference throughout the sector with smaller finance teams requiring an adaptable and personable character as well as a wide ranging skill set.

In 2015 we see competition increasing again for newly qualified accountants, there is also a particular candidate shortage within Financial Accounting and Control focused roles. Hiring will increase within the sector as fund raising levels continue to progress and as a result we would expect salaries to increase with the smaller/ medium sized Investment Management firms attracting the best talent on the market.

For more information, please contact Aaron lowry:

t: 020 7776 5929



Role financial management accountant Experience Salary (£)Likely salary uplift (%'age)

2014 bonus low (%'age)

2014 bonus med (%'age)

2014 bonus high (%'age)

Chief financial officer/finance director 10+ years 140,000+ 0-4 20 30 40+

Financial controller 7-10 years’ 90,000-120,000 0-4 10 20 30+

Head of financial reporting 5-7 years’ 75,000-90,000 0-3 10 15 25+

Senior financial accountant 3-6 years’ 65,000-75,000 0-3 8 12 20+

Financial accountant 1-3 years’ 50,000-55,000 0-4 5 10 15+

Management reporting/analysis Experience Salary (£)Likely salary uplift (%'age)




Head of management reporting 5-7 years” 70,000-100,000 0-3 10 15 25+

Senior management accountant 3-6 years’ 60,000-80,000 0-3 8 12 20+

Management accountant 1-3 years’ 45,000-65,000 0-4 5 10 15+

Fund accounting Experience Salary (£)Likely salary uplift (%'age)




Head of fund accounting 5-7 years’ 75,000-100,000 0-5 10 15 30+

Fund accounting manager 3-6 years’ 60,000-90,000 0-4 8 15 25+

Fund accountant 1-3 years’ 45,000-65,000 0-4 5 10 15+


4

Accounting & finance, banking & financial services – temporary

2014 has seen a significant shift in the appetite for finance and accounting interims.

In previous years, a substantial number of investment and retail banking finance teams were made up of contactors, now the preference is for permanent staff. An area that definitely confirms this trend is within Business Unit Control (financial and product control). The majority of organisations have continued to near-shore and off-shore these functions, leaving only the most analytical part of the roles in London. Subsequently with team size getting smaller, demand for temp workers has decreased. In addition to this, organisations are finding more effective ways around internal redeployment, again meaning that external resources are less sought after. Therefore the roles we see going externally tend to be more senior and more specialist. It is unlikely that companies will need to hire externally below a VP level.

There are however some areas that continue to see recruitment activity. Regulatory finance skills are in demand and clients are happy to seek permanent or interim resources. Examples include capital and liquidity reporting, COREP/FINREP with a particular focus on liquidity as banks readied for LCR deadlines in January. We predict liquidity reporting to remain a busy area since the deadline was pushed back to October 2015. This is very much a candidate driven market, fewer candidates with niche skills, who are in high demand. These regulations also link to treasury and treasury finance where clients will often be looking for strong technical balance sheet skills or focus around ILAA, ALM and liquidity risk. These roles tend to arise through project requirement and headcount increase or back-filling accountants who have moved on to projects internally.

We expect to see the above trends continue in to 2015.

In addition Q4 is always cost review time so we would expect to see an appetite for senior business partners, cost managers decision support staff to help in new year planning initiatives. These candidates will tend to be specialist in their specific discipline (HR, technology, operations, markets) and be able to face off to executive management.

For more information, please contact tom Danaher:

t: 020 7645 1456




5

Accounting and finance, investment management – temporary

Buy Side Interim Finance:Overall 2014 has been a quiet year for interim finance in the Asset Management space. The hiring which has occurred has been predominantly reactive with contractors being taken on to cover long term absences and maternity leave. We have also noticed an increase in the number of temp to perm positions being recruited as replacements for business leavers. This has generally been because businesses are running lean headcounts meaning that they need people in as quickly as possible to pick up the added workload. It has in general proved a successful tactic with a large percentage of these hires making the switch to permanent normally after a 3 month interim period. This is welcomed by the interim candidate pool who are looking to gain long term positions as a result of a lack of regular contract vacancies throughout the year.

The areas in which we have seen the majority of hires to cope with additional workload have been fund accounting and financial year end accounting. Both of these areas were recruited relatively steadily in the latter part of Q3 and early Q4 as businesses shored up their teams for added workload over year end and off the back of new funds being launched this year.

We also saw a relatively large number of property fund accountants being hired as REIT and Property Focussed Investment Managers launched new funds throughout the year.

We expect these trends to continue into 2015 with an increase in the number of temp to perm hires as well as interim resource requirements to help with additional workload as new funds continue to be launched.

Finance – qualifiedRole Low (£) Mid(£) High (£)

Product control – vanilla 250 400 450

Produt control - structured 300 400 500

IPV controller 350 450 550

Regulatory reporting (FSA/BoE) 350 450 550

Capital/liquidity accounting 350 450 550

Financial control 350 400 500

Legal entity controller 300 400 450

Compensation/HR accoutnant 300 375 450

Fund accountant 275 350 450

Management accountant 300 350 400

MIS accountant 300 400 500

Cost accountant 350 350 400

Financial reporting accountant 300 450 550

Tax accountant 300 400 500

For more information, please contact tom Danaher:

t: 020 7645 1456



Part of

2015 salary survey - accounting and finance

Documents

investment banking

years of salary freezes

universal banking

wholesale banking

retail banking

contents accounting

age associate

financial sector employees