London's financial job vacancies jump 56% in June, survey shows

[LONDON] Job vacancies in London's financial services industry jumped 56 per cent in June, reversing a drop in the previous month, led by compliance hiring, a survey showed.

Vacancies in the capital's financial district increased to 12,990 from 8,340 in May, recruitment firm Morgan McKinley said in a statement on Monday. The number of people looking for a new job rose 26 per cent to 12,462, with those securing new jobs increasing their salaries by 19 per cent on average.

"There is a renewed confidence in looking for new opportunities and these were clearly on offer," Hakan Enver, operations director at Morgan McKinley Financial Services, said in the statement. "All the data we are seeing shows that there is a robust market for financial-services jobs in the City." Banks are looking to hire compliance employees as regulators step up scrutiny in the wake of scandals such as the rigging of interest rates. A managing director in compliance at a London investment bank was paid 212,700 pounds (S$453,105) on average in June. That's compared with 365,000 pounds for compliance professionals on the same management level at US investment banking firms in London, Morgan McKinley said.

"The competition to hire is as fierce as ever" in compliance, Ben Harris, manager, compliance desk at Morgan McKinley, said in the statement. "Salaries continue to rise." An increase in job vacancies comes as rising pay and record low inflation has resulted in real-term wages increasing faster than before the financial crisis, according to a report from the Resolution Foundation in June. At the same time, companies are looking for ways to increase pay as regulators put a lid on bonuses and impose tougher clawback rules.

"Clawback regulations will push up basic pay," said Mr Enver. "They are a challenge to banks as they increase costs and the industry is going to have to become more innovative about how it attracts and compensates new talent."

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