The 2025 Barclay Simpson Salary Survey & Recruitment Trends Guide: Compliance & Financial Crime

Contract recruitment trends in compliance and financial crime

After a subdued 2024, the contract recruitment market has rebounded significantly in the first quarter of this year. We have seen demand rise sharply across both compliance and financial crime roles since the new year, with heightened activity throughout most market segments on both the buy-side and sell-side.

It’s a welcome shift for the interim market, which has struggled for momentum in recent years. Typically, the contracting space is busy when the permanent market is slow, and vice versa, but both have been quiet since the post-pandemic boom in hiring abated. Nevertheless, the recent surge in contract hiring could signal the first green shoots of recovery.

“Contract recruitment has been really, really busy over the first quarter and, encouragingly, much of the hiring is for transformation projects, which indicates confidence is returning to the market,” Michael Cunningham, Executive Consultant at Barclay Simpson.

In keeping with this, 46% of employers said ‘project work’ was the main reason they engaged contractors, temporary workers and other interim resource over the last year. Support with business-as-usual requirements due to increased workloads (14%) and absence cover (11%) came a distant second and third by comparison.

Unfortunately for firms, finding skilled contractors is becoming more challenging. A combination of IR35 reforms and a slow interim market in recent years has led many contractors and temporary workers to leave the space. In fact, 33% of contractors have considered or accepted permanent compliance or financial crime jobs since IR35 changes were introduced. Those that have remained in the industry have either increased their rates for ‘inside IR35 roles’ (33%) or will only accept ‘outside IR35’ roles (21%).

Most cited day rate for compliance and financial crime contractors in 2024

£800 – £899

It is therefore not surprising that more than half (56%) of employers say IR35 reforms continue affect their ability to engage contractors. However, it is worth emphasising that contractors, temporary workers and co-source support remain a valuable part of many compliance and financial crime teams. Approximately three-quarters of employers (76%) say they used contractors last year, which was a notable increase from 60% the previous year.

Key trends in compliance and financial crime recruitment

Various political, economic and social forces are shaping the cyber security and data privacy markets, creating both challenges and opportunities in recruitment. Here, we take a closer look at the trends driving demand today and the factors that could influence hiring in the future.

New regulations and fines

The announcement of new regulations, sanctions and fines are key drivers of compliance and financial crime hiring, and 2025 is shaping up to be a busy year on the regulatory front.

On September 1, a new corporate criminal offence will come into force which targets organisations that ‘fail to prevent fraud’. This means firms could be held criminally liable if employees, agents, subsidiaries or other ‘associated persons’ commit fraud in a way that benefits the business. We have already started to see an keen to strengthen their checks and balances in this area after new guidance on the offense was published in November.

Around the same time, the FCA also released its findings from a survey exploring culture and non-financial misconduct at more than 1,000 financial services firms. The results showed a sharp rise in non-financial misconduct – such as bullying, harassment and discrimination – from 1,363 incidents in 2021 to 2,347 in 2023. The increase may be due to problematic behaviour becoming more prevalent, but it could also signal that employees are starting to feel more comfortable speaking up.

Either way, the FCA is releasing a long-awaited policy statement on non-financial misconduct later this year. It is likely to emphasise the importance of addressing conduct-related risks and complying with human rights legislation, the Equality Act and whistleblowing requirements.

Firms have also taken note of the regulator’s recent £29 million fine for Starling Bank, with the organisation punished for failings in its financial sanctions screening measures. This has led to a notable increase recently in interim hiring across the space. Indeed, FCA fines appear to be ramping up across the board, as we discuss in the ‘Compliance permanent jobs market’ section of this report.

The rise of AI

Earlier this year, the UK government announced it will “turbocharge AI” as part of plans to boost productivity, attract foreign investment and create new jobs. But even without this push, AI has already been making waves across the country.

Currently, three-quarters of financial services firms in the UK are using AI, and a further 10% intend to within the next three years, according to Bank of England figures. Separate research from Grant Thornton shows that AI and machine learning are the top investment priorities for CFOs in banking and asset management firms.

Within compliance and financial crime specifically, 71% of executives told PwC they are confident that AI will have a positive impact on the performance of these functions. The technology is already widely deployed to automate routine tasks and processes across regulatory management, transaction monitoring, fraud detection and communications surveillance.

74% of financial services organisations that invest in AI achieve ROI in the first year

Source: UK Finance

How AI adoption will affect compliance jobs is more difficult to predict. Job losses are often raised as a concern, but conventional wisdom suggests that the introduction of AI could augment, rather than replace, employees. If implemented correctly, AI should free compliance and financial crime professionals from the burden of menial tasks to focus on more strategic work that only a human can do.

Beyond its role as a supporting technology, however, AI also creates challenges that compliance and financial crime teams must overcome in order to successfully discharge their duties.

While the UK currently has no statutory regulations surrounding AI, the EU Artificial Intelligence Act went into force in August 2024 and UK firms must comply if they operate in the EU or engage with its citizens. Meanwhile, financial crime functions must also contend with increasingly sophisticated AI-driven threats, including forged documentation and convincing deepfake impersonations and scams.

Clearly, AI presents both risks and opportunities that compliance and financial crime departments will need to delicately balance in the future. Candidates with the expertise and experience to help businesses navigate these challenges effectively will continue to be in high demand.

Hiring remains patchy in Europe

Compliance and financial crime hiring across Europe was broadly similar to the UK market in 2024, remaining quiet throughout most of the year, albeit with a modest increase in recruitment activity from Q3 onwards.

“Overall, it is a buyers’ market for the first time in years,” says James Conn, Principal Consultant for European Compliance at Barclay Simpson.

“This means hiring managers have more choice when it comes to recruiting good people, and we have seen expectations around salaries drop slightly.”

Political stability has been a key factor in the market’s performance, with Germany and France – both of which struggled with governmental crises in 2024 – experiencing a lull in recruitment. This lack of confidence has led to employers focusing mostly on replacement hiring rather than growth.

Hiring in Luxembourg, however, has remained active, especially within the alternative funds space. The steady expansion of the market has heightened demand for professionals well-versed in the EU’s Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive. More broadly, AML and financial crime professionals remain highly sought-after as regulatory pressures continue to rise across the board.

While the alternative industry is thriving in Luxembourg, the country has continued to lose out to Ireland in the UCITs space. Ireland’s more favourable tax treaty with the US means that Luxembourg may have to adapt if it wants to stem ongoing UCITs outflows.

In the Netherlands, hiring in banks has been relatively quiet, but this has enabled multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) to recruit the region’s top talent. We have therefore seen a surge in demand among MTFs for candidates within the trading space.

Elsewhere, there is strong competition for professionals with , or those with the necessary knowledge and experience for approval, in Ireland. A recent review of the country’s Fitness and Probity (F&P) Regime could also impact hiring, with the central bank confirming it will implement all of the review’s recommendations.

​Lastly, the Channel Islands have seen growing demand for compliance and financial crime professionals over the last few years, following recommendations from MoneyVal and the FATF to enhance AML and CFT measures. With a relatively small local talent pool, firms are increasingly exploring alternative resourcing options, though bringing in off-island professionals can be challenging due to licensing requirements.

Salary levels, meanwhile, have not always kept pace with how quickly the market has grown, leading to noticeable disparities between comparable roles across different firms. Those offering stronger overall packages or more competitive pay are currently best placed to attract and retain the region’s strongest talent.

Diversity in compliance and financial crime

At Barclay Simpson, we are committed to building diverse and inclusive workplaces where everyone’s contributions are respected and valued. Recruiters are in a unique position to promote the benefits of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) within the world of employment, and we believe agencies should not only embrace these values internally, but also promote and support them across their wider communities.

In our 2025 Compliance and Financial Crime guide, we will for the first time be publishing additional diversity-focused data gained from our annual salary surveys in order to provide greater insight into employers’ and candidates’ perspectives on EDI. We intend to follow these trends year on year to track the progress and evolution of EDI policies and attitudes in the workplace.

FCA scraps new diversity rules

In 2023, the PRA and FCA published new proposals to improve diversity and inclusion within the sector. A consultation period lasted until the end of that year, and its final rules were due to be unveiled in early 2025.

However, in March, the regulators announced the new regulations would not be going ahead, due partly to the government’s own efforts to strengthen ethnicity and disability pay reporting for all large organisations in the UK.

This is a disappointing development, as we believe a greater focus on EDI would be welcomed by both employers and professionals. Our data shows that 89% of candidates see equality, diversity and inclusion as important to them personally. Of these, 45% say it is ‘very’ important.

Among employers, the data is remarkably similar, with 87% confirming EDI is personally important to them and 57% stating it is very important.

Greater diversity needed at the top

Candidates and employers agree that the biggest challenge organisations face in creating a diverse and inclusive culture is increasing representation in leadership and board-level roles. This was also the most commonly cited challenge by both men and women, although a greater proportion of women view it as the main hurdle for EDI (43% versus 29% for men).

Both sexes also consider setting and tracking key performance indicators as a major challenge, with 10% of women and 15% of men describing it as the biggest barrier to diversity in the workplace. But pay equity is a bigger concern for women – 22% see it as the top challenge, compared to just 8% of men.

Employers, on the other hand, are more likely to point to ‘motivating stakeholders’ (19%) and a ‘fear of getting things wrong’ (13.5%) as key obstacles to advancing EDI. Many also say they need more support in building fair hiring processes (11%) and finding EDI-skilled HR professionals (11%).

Candidates sceptical of EDI impact

While support for diversity-driven policies is high among compliance and financial crime professionals, there remains some doubt about whether EDI initiatives are achieving their aims.

Despite many employees taking a neutral stance, it is nonetheless encouraging to see that far more professionals agree than disagree that EDI is making a real difference in their workplace – 41% compared with just 16%. We are also pleased to see that 63% of candidates believe their organisation shows a strong commitment to EDI, suggesting that people recognise their employers’ initiatives are well-intentioned even if there is still some room for improvement on outcomes.

For companies serious about EDI, understanding these nuanced perspectives is crucial. By really listening to employees about what matters to them, and using that to shape meaningful policies around diversity and inclusion, organisations have a better chance of creating a sense of belonging and making a positive difference in the workplace.

If you would like to know more about any of the diversity-related findings in this report or the EDI advice and support we can provide, please contact us today.

Salary and bonus trends

Compliance and financial crime salaries enjoyed unprecedented growth in 2021 and 2022, before beginning to plateau as the post-pandemic boom in hiring receded. As the market has quietened, salaries have remained largely flat, particularly at the more senior end of the market. Indeed, many senior-level positions have been lost amidst business restructures, with firms instead replacing these roles with more junior- and mid-level hires, as well as internal moves.

Salary growth in 2025 is also expected to remain fairly low, with 76% of employers intending to increase base salaries for existing employees by between 1% and 4% over the next 12 months. Meanwhile, only 11% of organisations expect to pay bigger bonuses in the next 12 months.

“Salary growth has slowed in recent years, and we’re seeing more compliance and financial crime professionals expected to do more for less, whether they stay in their current role or move to another,” says Nick Evans, Executive Consultant, Compliance, at Barclay Simpson.

“However, many departments are also telling us they are currently understaffed, which could create problems as regulatory pressures and demands increase on these functions.”

Additionally, 9% chose remote working as their biggest motivator, indicating that flexible working overall is increasingly important to candidates when weighing up job offers. So important, in fact, that 68% of professionals claim they would consider leaving their current job if it didn’t offer the hybrid working set-up they want.

In keeping with this, a sizeable minority of employers admit their hybrid and remote working policies are causing recruitment and retention problems. More than a third (38%) say they are experiencing issues, although could rise further as organisations begin to push for employees to come back into the office more.

“Firms are becoming more vigilant with their work-from-home policies, so employers who expect people in the office two or three days a week are now monitoring adherence more closely or requiring more in-office hours,” says James Boxall, Principal Consultant at Barclay Simpson.

“Typically, firms headquartered in the US have always been stricter with their hybrid working policies, but we’re seeing other organisations begin to follow suit.”

While an employer-led market gives firms the upper hand at the moment, the cyclical nature of recruitment means the tide will eventually turn. Companies that are unwilling to compromise on remote and flexible working benefits may struggle to attract and retain the best talent in a market where skilled candidates are in high demand and short supply.

Compliance salaries

Financial crime salaries