What will the 2024 treasury market in financial services look like?

While 2023 saw a slightly slower market in regards to treasury recruitment,  it is still outperforming many specialisms in the market. And treasury roles within financial services has been particularly busy for Brewer Morris in London; making up 23% of all our vacancies over the last 12 months.

Clients are keen to continue hiring despite the economic outlook. In a downturn or tricky economic period, treasury has a spotlight shone on it, this means hiring managers are keener than ever to attract and retain the right and best talent in the market. Hiring managers have often taken opportunities of someone in their team leaving to upskill a role or reshuffle their team to best fit its current needs and ensure they are not left exposed within the market. This has meant dynamic candidates with good skillsets are more in demand than ever. Hiring managers look to recruiters’ advice on who the right profile of candidate might be and what they would have to pay for such an individual.

In the financial services market, the challenger bank and fintech space has been the busiest over the past year, across all levels of seniority. Our vacancies within the fintech space particularly increased and we saw a 6% increase. With record years for many businesses last year and the current economic outlook, many of these organisations are reaching the size and maturity where a robust treasury function is needed where it perhaps wasn’t previously required. Most financial services businesses are looking for somebody who has graduated out of a successful university with academic results. They will also be looking at their qualifications, where they have completed the ACT/ACCA/CFA or something equivalent, albeit this is level dependent.

Salaries have increased considerably in recent times Candidates were in a strong position and knew if they were to look elsewhere and move roles, they would be in line for a considerable uplift, this meant businesses had to increase salaries of their teams to ensure retention of staff. Salary increases for candidates moving between roles has steadied, this is partly down to the calming of the market, so we are not seeing candidates in multiple processes meaning they are no longer being able to drive salaries up. This means clients can run a more robust hiring process; however, speed is still paramount. Candidates will lose interest and feel less valued in processes that take a long time.

Top three in demand skills

• Front office dealing – FX and hedging
• Treasury projects, back office – inter-company loans
• Bank and investor

It is a good time to be a candidate thinking about your next move. There are a good number of roles on the market so you can take your time choosing, however, if you see a good role, even if the timing is not perfect, you should put your hat in the ring. I would also recommend to candidates sitting at the more junior end to aim to qualify as soon as possible. With the way the current economic climate is, we are seeing an increased need for a strategic skillset and having a qualification will ensure you are looked on more favourably by hiring managers.

If a business wants the best candidate they will have to pay a premium, candidates want to feel valued when discussing compensation.

For more information on treasury within financial services please contact Luke Booker.