When it comes to matching good candidates
to good opportunities in any business sector recruitment agencies quite rightly
have to do their homework in order to fully understand and stay abreast of
their marketplace or niche sector. This is particularly true for the Finance
sector which has witnessed some huge changes over the last few years.Take the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for example, now commonly referred to as SOX. When Congress passed the Act in 2002 it had three prime objectives - to combat fraud, to improve the reliability of financial reporting and to restore investor confidence. Although these goals are simple enough in themselves the underlying controls which financial institutions are obliged to implement under the Act are often exceedingly complex and the costs of implementation can run into millions. This is because the establishing of sound internal control structures requires a thorough assessment of the current financial control mechanisms followed by analysis and planning for the necessary improvements to meet the Act's compliance targets. These changes can range from simple procedural changes at one end of the scale to full blown IT system replacements at the other end of the scale.
At first the requirements of SOX compliance seemed over complex and burdensome causing many senior executives to question the need for such expensive and bureaucratic solutions but over time there has been a marked sea change in opinion and today most Finance industry executives realise the huge benefits that the Act can bring if well managed internally within the organisation.
This realisation began to dawn not just because of the fall out from the WorldCom and Enron scandals but also from many other factors that were weakening the established control processes e.g. rapid mergers and acquisitions with less-than-seamless integration, new IT systems, outsourcing, foreign expansion and globalisation, exploitation of new markets and organisational restructuring. All these and other smaller internal factors had led to many financial institutions experiencing weakened or non-existent controls leaving them exposed to both audit failures and increasing investor disquiet. In this context the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act provided the perfect framework within which to address all these issues and put the house back in order.
Basel II is another similar example of an initiative that has been steadily growing in stature and becoming increasingly sophisticated as the whole concept of ‘lending risk' has become higher profile. Essentially the requirement is for lending institutions to apply much more rigorous controls to their lending policies in order to minimise risk in accordance with the stringent requirements of the Basel II accord. It sounds simple enough in principle but the reality is that there are huge implications in terms of changes for not only procedures and processes but also hugely expensive changes to current IT systems.
Achieving compliance though is not a task that can be undertaken lightly. The reality within most financial institutions is that the majority of staff are fully employed on the ‘day job' and have little, if any, capacity to start implementing the procedural and technical changes necessary to meet the demands of SOX or Basel compliance. This is where good recruitment agencies can really make a difference. Traditionally Agencies would keep a list of potential candidates with tried and trusted Finance experience that can be deployed into suitable positions within the industry. Increasingly though financial institutions are not just looking for mainstream banking knowledge but also the ability to adapt, manage or drive new initiatives to meet current legislative and compliance targets. This means that in today's competitive market place both recruitment agencies and their candidates need to be stay abreast of all the industry initiatives that are impacting the business. Having good ‘sector knowledge' is no longer enough. Having an awareness and experience of the latest financial IT systems and processes that underpin compliance targets are now equally as important - as these are increasingly the key skills the industry is looking for.