A 'quick and dirty' PricewaterhouseCoopers poll of 20 heads of compliance at British asset-management firms has revealed a shortage of appropriately qualified compliance staff in the market.

A 'quick and dirty' PricewaterhouseCoopers poll of 20 heads of compliance at British asset-management firms has revealed a shortage of appropriately qualified compliance staff in the market.

It has also found that one-third of those compliance departments lack confidence that they can cope with future demands. A hulking 95% of the firms believe that 'regulatory demand' is going to increase year-on-year for the next two or three years. The accountants at PwC, which offers a suite of compliance consulting services, announed in a recent promotional note that "this suggests that worse is yet to come."

The City of London compliance job market has been snapping up every last particle of regulatory talent ever since the change in regulator in April, if not before. As heavily-regulated City firms take on more and more compliance people and pay them much more than they could ever earn at the Financial Conduct Authority or the Bank of England, the average regulator has been spending less time as a regulator than ever before.

People are now leaving those regulatory bodies at nearly twice the rate as before. Data from a 'freedom of information' request on the part of Reuters revealed that 162 out of about 2,575 staff left the Financial Conduct Authority during its first six months and 50 out of about 1,080, including 11 temporary workers, left the Bank's Prudential Regulation Authority during its first five months. It seems likely that the only answer to the vacuum of experience and talent in this area is: (i) an intensification of staff training by the FCA and PRA; or (ii) more recruitment by both regulators; or (iii) an increase in the salaries of regulators to make early resignations less attractive to them; or (iv) a further outsourcing of compliance jobs at firms to other departments or indeed to other firms. It is possible that only a combination of all four can staunch the flow.