Money laundering IT specialists in short supply

Anti-Money Laundering IT professionals in short supply as pressures mount in Investment Banking
community

BlueMax IT, a leading banking and finance recruitment consultancy, has recently encountered
increasing activity within the Investment Banking community. In particular, firms have begun to
'swoop' on the scant supply of Anti-Money Laundering professionals in both the retail and card
processing sectors. While Basel II has been the focus for many financial institutions, the increased
expansion of AML regulation is causing a migration of compliance professionals from retail
institutions to the more lucrative Investment Banking and Wealth Management sectors.
Traditionally such AML professionals have come from the retail account and card processing areas of
high street banks. The pool of experienced candidates who know both the current and impending AML
regulations, and have implemented the latest software systems is limited. These candidates typically
are from the Special Investigations / Account Monitoring sections of mature card processing
companies and retail banks, with knowledge and experience of account profiling, KYC, KYCB, and OFAC.
Many are making the leap from Retail Banking institutions to the Investment / Wholesale Banking
community, which imposes the same regulatory requirements but offers significantly larger
compensation packages. Equally Management Consulting firms - who have recently been recruiting for
their regulatory compliance advisory and consulting teams - are offering highly attractive packages.

As the FSA tightens the regulations further, and as pressure from the EU and Basel Committee on
Banking Supervision intensifies, there will be more fines, naming and shaming non-compliant
financial institutions - such as the FSA regulated bank that was fined for 375,000 breaches of money
laundering requirements. This means large City institutions that have significant reputations and
names to protect will happily pay top market rate for the scarce AML expertise out there. AML
professionals are likely to have the longest tenure of employment as this regulation looks set to be
on-going, unlike Sarbanes-Oxley.

BlueMax IT has also seen increased recruitment activity from Management Consulting firms for Basel
II, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and AML professionals for both advisory and consulting roles.

Contact information for BlueMax IT Recruitment Limited
http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/vend/BlueMax.html

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