According to major recruitment firm Hays, regulation is driving bank demand for staff who specialise in compliance, risk and auditing.
Even though Australian banks are better regulated than most global banks, Basel III is set to be applied in Australia via the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA), said Hays Accounting and Finance senior regional director Susan Drew.
And despite the Basel Committee softening its stance and allowing banks to transition to the new liquidity rules by 2019, APRA announced in May that Australian banks will have to be 100 per cent with the ‘liquidity coverage ratio’ by 2015.
“The regulatory changes are designed to reinforce structural changes in the banking sector, protect the economy from riskier banking sector activities, help secure the international banking system in times of financial pressure, but not force up lending costs or limit access to credit,” said Ms Drew.
As a result, Australian banks are looking to “further mature their second and third line of defence” by strengthening their risk and audit teams, she added.
“While there is demand for candidates with these core skills, we have also seen an increase in project-related risk and audit professionals to imbed the new standards.
“These changes are leading to demand for compliance professionals, including people with skills in process support, IT support, training, examination, assessment and remedial action, and those capable of running initiatives to meet new regulatory requirements,” she added.
Due to a shortage of candidates domestically, Australian banks are looking to hire candidates from major financial centres such as London, New York, Singapore and Hong Kong.
“The good news is that banking institutions with refreshed or new core systems infrastructures have found that they are much more able to cope, in an efficiency and productivity sense, with the new regulatory imposts,” Ms Drew said.
