The 2026 Barclay Simpson Salary Survey & Recruitment Trends Guide: Compliance

Compliance permanent jobs market

The compliance recruitment market has been more active over the last 12 months, albeit only moderately so, and it is still some way off its most recent hiring peak during the post-pandemic period.

Hiring across compliance jobs was relatively consistent throughout 2025, although it failed to build meaningful momentum after a subdued 2024. Underlying demand was also offset by the offshoring and nearshoring of jobs to cut costs, along with some redundancies and hiring reductions at large firms. That said, smaller fintech and payments firms continue to generate demand for compliance professionals. As these firms scale or seek FCA authorisation, they are typically required to appoint experienced compliance leaders, such as Heads of Compliance or MLROs.

Consumer Duty remains one of the few areas where the FCA has materially increased supervisory attention, which has led to some targeted hiring. However, the broader regulatory environment has been relatively quiet compared with the immediate post-pandemic years.

“The market has improved over the last year, but there are still several factors preventing hiring from hitting its stride,” says Nick Evans, Executive Consultant, Compliance, at Barclay Simpson.

“Much of the economic and political backdrop remains uncertain, and the FCA has announced it will be ‘rebalancing‘ its approach to risk to focus more on growth. A deregulatory policy environment can also limit the urgency behind compliance hiring, as firms face fewer immediate regulatory change projects and reduced pressure to expand oversight functions.”

The regulator’s comments come at a time when both the UK and the US are looking to cut red tape in an effort to boost their respective economies. One measure that has already been announced in the UK is the abolishment of the Payment Systems Regulator, with the FCA expected to take on its responsibilities.

Against this backdrop, enforcement activity has also eased. Last year, the FCA levied £124 million in penalties, which is down from £176 million in 2024 and considerably lower than the near £570 million handed down in 2021.

Many organisations are already telling us that their teams are stretched. According to our annual Employer Survey, 61% of firms that hire compliance and financial crime professionals believe staff shortages are currently affecting the performance of their teams. Of these, 11% say the impact is significant.

Barriers to hiring

Looking ahead to the remainder of this year, employers’ hiring intentions have improved since our last report, though not by a large margin. Currently, 61% of organisations say they will likely recruit additional staff in 2026, up from 58% year on year.

And while candidate availability is reasonably high at the moment, 93% of organisations tell us they are still finding it challenging to hire the right people in the current market. Of these, almost a third (32%) say it is ‘very challenging’.

Contract jobs in compliance

After a relatively strong start to the year in 2025, activity within the compliance contract jobs market petered out as the year progressed. In many ways, contract recruitment mirrored permanent jobs, with redundancies, outsourcing and a quiet regulatory environment combining to suppress demand.

“The first quarter of last year was busy, but this momentum didn’t carry through to the rest of 2025 and we are seeing fewer of the transformation projects that would typically drive hiring,” says Michael Cunningham, Executive Consultant at Barclay Simpson.

“Operational compliance has been very quiet overall, and a number of big banks have begun to outsource functions to locations such as Poland and India to automate and cut costs.”

As mentioned earlier in this report, there has been some ongoing hiring around consumer duty regulations for retail firms, but on the whole it has not been a period in which a large amount of regulatory change is occurring. However, it is worth noting that contractors, temporary workers and co-source support remain a valued part of many compliance teams. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of organisations told us they regularly use interim support.

There has been a decline in the proportion of employers hiring primarily for specific projects though (30% today, versus 46% in our last report), reflecting the slowdown in transformation programmes. Leveraging subject matter expertise, which was cited by 35% of organisations, is now the most common reason for using interim staff.

Fixed-term contracts (FTCs) have also become increasingly common over the last year. In 2024, a third of interim employees in compliance roles said they were on FTCs. This figure has since climbed to 50% and it is now the most frequently cited contract arrangement.

Interestingly, contractor preferences appear to be shifting as well. Last year, ‘outside IR35’ agreements were the most popular type of contract among candidates, but they have now fallen behind FTCs in order of preference.

FTCs have historically been unpopular with candidates because they do not offer either the long-term job security of a permanent role, nor the financial incentives of traditional contracting. That said, it is possible that in an uncertain market with fewer opportunities across both permanent and contract jobs, compliance professionals view FTCs as offering at least short- to medium-term stability.

AI in compliance recruitment

Last year, the UK Government announced a number of major reforms aimed at driving growth, creating jobs and boosting British businesses by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI).

OECD estimates suggest that AI could improve productivity in the UK by up to 1.2 percentage points every year over the next decade, second only to the US in the G7. Increasing AI adoption within organisations could also unlock as much as £140 billion in annual economic output.

In this, our 2026 Compliance Salary Survey and Recruitment Trends Guide, we explore how AI is influencing the profession, both in the day-to-day operation of teams and across compliance recruitment.

AI helping to automate compliance

Last year, 71% of executives in a PwC poll said they were confident that AI would have a positive impact on compliance functions. The technology has already been widely adopted to automate routine tasks and processes across regulatory management, transaction monitoring, fraud detection and communications surveillance.

Employers were even more sceptical. More than two-thirds (68%) don’t currently use it in their processes, and 68% agreed with candidates that it makes recruitment neither more efficient nor more effective.

Of the organisations currently utilising AI in their recruitment, it was most commonly used for interview support, such as transcribing and analysing interviews (75%). Writing and targeting job adverts (63%) and CV screening and shortlisting (38%) were also frequently cited activities. However, a third (33%) of employers view AI as a threat to their recruitment processes. The biggest concerns centred around the integrity of information provided on CVs (93%), the quality of candidate sourcing and selection (64%) and AI-enabled impersonation (43%).