Overall the last year saw a continued demand for credit analysts across all industry and products areas. This was particularly evident in growth areas such as structured credit (leveraged finance, structured finance and securitisation), commodities and emerging markets, and in areas where specialist knowledge and skills were required such as hedge funds and languages. The market has been very much candidate driven, with a general shortage of candidates partly due to the movement of credit professionals into front office teams and the buy-side (hedge funds, funds etc).
For these reasons candidates who did move were often considering a number of opportunities and generally moved for a good upside in their package. Those with the specialist knowledge and skills were commanding significant salary increases (including guarantees/sign-on). In many cases candidates would be considering multiple offers.
To an extent however, institutions did not make a hire unless the candidate matched all their criteria, and it was not unusual for an institution to be looking for over 6 months. This was due to the sentiment in the market that there was a general lack of 'talent' and 'value for money'. Given the market conditions, institutions did acknowledge there was a need to be flexible when hiring and recognised the importance of an effective recruitment process. Institutions that adapted to these market conditions generally put themselves in a more competitive position when sourcing candidates.
Key market trends
- Candidate driven due to a shortage of candidates and strong supply of roles.
- Strong growth in areas such as leveraged finance, commodities and emerging markets.
- Outsourcing of parts of the credit process such as rating analysis and annual reviews.
- Restructuring of credit risk teams to achieve closer alignment to the business areas.
- Continuing trend for institutions to promote internally, especially at senior level.
2006 saw a number of banks restructure their credit risk teams, aligning them more closely to the business and having a more specialist focus. In addition, there was a move towards outsourcing parts of the credit process such as annual reviews and rating analysis.
2007 is expected to see the continuation of some 2006 trends with a continued demand for candidates, especially in growth areas such as structured credit and emerging markets. It is expected that banks will start to build out their work-out/recovery teams in anticipation of a change in the credit environment.