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WWW.HARRINGTONSTARR.COM
Company Registration Number: 7246003
Company Headquarters:
99 Waterloo Road, London, SE1 8UL
Company Telephone Number: 0203 587 7007
Company Email: info@harringtonstarr.com
Company Registered Address: Cornerstone House,
9 Lord Chancellor Walk, Kingston Upon Thames,
Surrey, KT2 7HG.
Harrington Starr’s
Monthly Market
Commentary On The
Financial Services
And Commodities
Technology Sector
HS INSIGHT
AUGUST
2013
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G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
to HS Insight, August
2013. This copy
looks at the major trends in salaries,
business and technology, and investigates
the hottest skills in the global financial
services and commodities technology
sector. As we recognise that you are busy,
you can now also watch a ten minute
highlight presentation of this commentary
on our youtube channel.
This month we are delighted to have a
sixty second interview with Eddie George,
Founder of London New Finance. Eddie
brings us a fascinating look at the booming
FinTech start up scene and talks us
through his remarkable rise to the summit
of the networking community.
We welcome bloggers and companies
looking to showcase their business
to our 30,000 strong readership of
FinTech professionals and please get in
touch should you wish to explore our
complimentary opportunities to contribute
to the magazine.
Harrington Starr is a business focussed
on insight, networking, events,
business consultancy, introductions
and recruitment. Focussed solely on
the financial services and commodities
technology space, we are passionate about
insight and news in the sector and are
delighted to present our headlines to the
FS and Commodities Community. We hope
that you enjoy the read.
An overview of the Financial Services,
Commodities & Insurance Technology Markets
August2013
Market
Commentary
HARRINGTON
STARR
Welcome
Market
Commentary
HARRINGTON
STARR
Visit the Harrington
Starr You Tube
channel to tune in.
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The business covers twelve technology
verticals including development, buy and
sell side trading systems, sales, product &
marketing, Low latency, FIX, Connectivity
& market data, senior & executive hires,
trade, operations & systems support,
risk & compliance, logistics and supply
chain, testing & quality assurance, big
data, databases & business intelligence,
quantitative and algo trading and
commodities IT.
With over 400 of
the World’s leading
Investment Banks,
Asset Managers,
Stock Exchanges,
Brokerages, Hedge
Funds, Prop Trading
firms, Trading
Houses, Vendors and
Consultancies working
with the company
over five different
continents and
twenty six countries,
Harrington Starr would
be delighted to partner
with your business.
For copies of our
2013 contract
rate survey,
2013 permanent
salary survey
or our series of
white papers,
please get in
touch on
0203 587 7007.
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Market Overview
Sixty Second Interview with
Eddie George, CEO NewFinance
MARKET NEWS
Financial Technology
Commodities Technology
SALARY OVERVIEW
Financial Technology
Commodities Technology
HIGH DEMAND SKILLS
Financial Technology
Commodities Technology
BUSINESS TRENDING
Financial Technology
Commodities Technology
TECHNOLOGY TRENDING
Financial Technology
Commodities Technology
Tips for Companies Looking to Hire
Tips for Candidates Looking for Work
Announcements
Interview With David Peglar
Summary
05
08
10
13
15
17
18
20
22
24
25
27
28
30
34
40
42
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
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brought with it a
noticeable surge in employer confidence in the
Financial Services and Commodities Technology
sector. As stated in HS Insight for the last few
months, the talk has been of improving conditions,
project sign offs and headcount drives. This certainly
seemed to come to fruition in July with record
business levels recorded at Harrington Starr. As has
often been said, the recruitment sector serves as a
strong barometer for economic confidence and, in
such case, the markets have returned to rude health.
The Harrington Starr Contractor Rate Survey was
released this month and again, the results showed
positive trending. Covering 538 separate rate bands
in financial services and commodities technology
we recorded an industry average of £461 a day for
professionals in the space. The banks remained at
the peak with that average falling at £490 a day.
The recordings fell per sector as follows:
••
Investment Banking - £490
Commodities Trading - £486
Asset Management - £473
Exchange, Brokerage, MTF - £464
Vendor - £384
••
MARKET
OVERVIEW
••
“The recruitment
sector serves as a
strong barometer
for economic
confidence.”
••
THE JULY HEAT WAVE
A market overview from Harrington
Starr’s Managing Director Toby Babb
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The vendors are still reluctant to invest in contract talent and the
investment banks are still prepared to spend at the highest level.
Interestingly, the hottest skills have seen rises in rates and a scramble
for talent.
Here are our twelve most in demand technologies
in FS and Commodities Technology contracting:
••
Web development (ASP) 	 £450-600
Java/C++ 			£350-600
FPGA				£350–550
Risk Management and
Systems Implementation 	 £450-700
Infrastructure Specialists 	 £325-425
FIX Messaging Specialists 	 £450-600
Automated Trade Support 	 £275-400
Asset Management
Business Analysts 		 £375-575
Commodities Trading
Software Project Managers 	 £400 – 750
Commodities
Trading Developers 		 £400-600
Commodities Apps Support
with Business Knowledge 	 £300-525
••
These skills have boomed in the first half of last year and seen in
creases in rates throughout all sectors. We expect to see more of the
same for experienced professionals in the sector through the
remainder of 2013.
There were a number of
interesting press releases
throughout July as well in a
period of furious activity in the
sector. We saw the London Stock
Exchange acquire Turquoise
Derivatives. S&P Capital IQ
formed a strategic agreement
with Tullett Prebon Information,
Fidessa saw developments
in their Derivatives division,
Goldman Sachs are set to spin off
REDI Tech Group, TS Associates
released Correlix 5.2 Flow
Modelling Solution and there
was movement for the Aquis
Exchange. Whilst this is a highly
innovative sector, there has been
high activity in product releases,
partnerships, business wins and
M&A. All signs of improving
confidence in Financial Services.
The impact that this has had on
staffing has been noticeable with
the press reporting that PWC’s
recent report suggested that the
return of banking confidence
is likely to create 250,000 jobs
in the Capital. With increasing
competition between companies
to secure the best talent,
particularly in the more niche
tech skill sets, it is becoming
more and more important that
companies are looking at their
capability planning and start to
pipeline and talent pool relevant
skill sets. Attraction strategies
have to be absolutely clear
with a compelling proposition.
As mentioned with past
commentaries, the landscape has
changed. No longer are we simply
looking to compete with other
banks, the Googles, Facebooks
& Shazams of this world are
starting to really challenge for the
very best in tech.
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There was also an interesting
article from eFinancial heralding
the 15 jobs in banking that will
be big to 2020 and beyond.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the
line up was dominated by Risk
and, as will be revealed in the
pages that follow, roles that
combine Risk and Technology
are both in high demand and
highly sought after. Interestingly,
the list also included Oil &Gas,
M&A specialists and those in
the Wealth Management sector.
Those who have read the last year
of HS Insight will be well aware
of the fact that these are areas we
have been talking about for some
time and, in technology, people
who can link these business
areas and translate between the
front office and tech teams are in
very high demand. The list also
contained Python developers.
The resurgence of the language in
banking tech has been prominent
and there has been a swell in
demand in recent weeks.
The prestigious Waters Rankings
was also released in July with the
cream of the FinTech community
battling for recognition in New
York. It was fantastic to see
some new names on the podium
and we would like to take this
opportunity to congratulate all
the winners and particularly
the numerous Harrington Starr
clients that appeared on the
podium. What was clear from
the awards is that innovation is
continuing apace and the war for
efficiency and advantage through
technology is very much in action.
In the month that Harrington Starr sponsored
the “Finance in the Cloud” event at the Cass
Business School, we should focus as well on the
developments in that space. Institutional-investor
demand suggested that market data vendors are
seeing more opportunity than ever in the Cloud
with both this and Shared Services very much on
the rise. The adoption of Cloud tech in FinTech
is rapidly evolving and AIB’s COO Anne Boden
recently quoted that the Bank’s private cloud
has meant a “tenfold reduction in the number of
Oracle databases” and offered significantly more
development flexibility and technological ability.
With increasing confidence around the security
of Cloud systems to match the ever increasing
advantages around flexibility, cost and technology,
this will dominate the headlines for many months
to come. This presents opportunity in a market that
has not yet fully adopted making it an area ripe for
disruption.
Over at our friends at Low-Latency.com, an excellent
article by Pete Harris added to the debate around
Social, another consistent area of discussion in
FinTech. Quoting OneFinancialData’s report, a
massive 85% of respondents agreed that social
media offered faster dissemination and analysis
for breaking events than traditional media.
Interestingly, the same report noted that only 18.2%
of the firms polled were actually using Social Media
in their trading and investment strategy. Whilst
there are certainly risks involved, that 81.8% will
grow aggressively in the coming years and offers
another incredible opportunity for innovators in the
space to win business and forge trading advantages.
In the pages that follow you will read a positive
report of technical evangelism, development &
advancement of technology and a rapidly recovering
global market. Many companies are managing to
take advantage of these opportunities yet some
continue to lag. As stated above, there are so many
openings waiting and yearning for the next big
advancement. The next six months will see rises in
Mobile, Cloud, HFT, Data and Social. We would love
to talk to you about who we can introduce you to to
help ensure that these opportunities are capitalised
upon. Please get in touch to discuss and we wish
you another successful month.
“The war for efficiency
and advantage through
technology is very
much in action.”
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SECOND
INTERVIEW60
Eddie George ~ CEO NewFinance
Harrington Starr: Hi Eddie, so first please
tell us a little about yourself?
Eddie George: Hi, well I like to think of myself as a ‘grown up’
technologist, I have a Computer Science degree and also an MBA and
I’m most interested in how technology can deliver real practical value
rather than just deliver technology for technology’s sake, I like to think
I can blend tech expertise with good business sense. I’ve worked in
the City for over 25 years with the last 5 in the new tech scene, and it’s
been really exciting and fun as the scene has expanded so rapidly
Harrington Starr: How did you come to start NewFinance?
Eddie George: I started NewFinance back in July 2011 as a small
group that would meet for a drink once a month to discuss the
latest innovations in Financial Technology simply because nobody
else was running anything similar. I imagined that perhaps a dozen
people would like to join me for a drink, but as it turns out after a
couple of years 1500 and counting would like to. We’ve firmed up and
professionalised since then and we’re now thought-leadership driven
producing research and guides, events, media content and much more.
Harrington Starr: What’s the ultimate aim of NewFinance?
Eddie George: Put simply, to bring positive transformation to the
global financial services industry using technology, much like Amazon
has done for retail or Expedia for travel. Those industries left the
station years ago and have made great strides in improving the market,
it’s now Finance’s turn and we want to facilitate that with technology.
Everyone complains about the current system but technology is the
enabler to bring real change and the pace of advance is so rapid that
everything we need today to make the changes is already available; it’s
just a case of applying it and managing the transformation.
••
“NewFinance is
a Platform for
Financial
Innovation
through
Technology.”
••
Eddie George
Founder and CEO of
NewFinance, the UK’s
largest Financial Technology
Innovation Network
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Harrington Starr: What kind of people join the group?
Eddie George: We have a core of FinTech (Financial Technology)
Entrepreneurs who are building new companies to innovate in the
space and then a wide range of other Members providing support,
typically Investors at all levels, Service providers such as Solicitors,
Accountants etc… and also Technologists, Academics, Students,
Government, Finance Professionals, Journalists and so on, pretty much
anyone interested in the core theme of Financial Innovation. I like to
think of the Entrepreneurs as being on the pitch scoring goals and
everyone else providing support in one way or another whether it’s
capital, services, knowledge or expertise.
Harrington Starr: NewFinance has expanded rapidly this year,
what’s next for you and the group?
Eddie George: Yes, our timing was spot on, but mostly by luck not
design I should say, this is one of those projects that has just gone
really smoothly. The next steps are to expand to the US and to other
countries and to enhance our existing services, including the launch
of a new online platform to carry more content and deliver tailored
services to our Members. Year 3 is going to be pretty busy, we’re
planning to expand to New York in November and to the Bay Area and
other clusters next year. Watch this space.
Harrington Starr: OK, and finally what advice would you give
to a budding FinTech Entrepreneur thinking of starting a new
company to innovate in financial services?
Eddie George: London is a key global cluster alongside New York
and the Bay Area, and everything you need is here, you just need to
make the right connections to find it. The most common mistake that I
see is too much focus on the tech and not enough on the marketing, so
someone in your start-up needs to be 100% focused on looking outside
your company and building the right relationships and bringing in
all the resources you need, many of which are free. Make sure you’re
market driven and not tech driven, if you build it, they will not come!
Harrington Starr: Eddie, thanks very much for talking with us and
we wish you the very best of luck with NewFinance especially the
international expansion.
••
“The next steps are
to expand to the
US and to other
countries and to
enhance our
existing services.”
••
Eddie George
Founder and CEO
of NewFinance
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quis Exchange
has struck up
some exciting
partnerships
over the past
month, most notably with
BT Radianz that will allow its
members to access its trading
platform through the BT
Radianz cloud. The BT Radianz
cloud is currently the largest
secured network used across the
financial services community
and with the additional clearing
capabilities means the full trade
lifecycle (STP) can occur without
disruption. In addition to the
BT Radianz partnership, Aquis
have enhanced their offering
by selecting Tradeview from
Datacom for their market data
feed monitoring and Interxion to
host a second co-located facility
in London, which will give users
more latency options and Aquis
more capacity and resiliency.
Bite size news from the financial services
and commodities technology markets.
MARKET
NEWS
FINANCIAL
TECHNOLOGY
The collaboration with Interxion, specialists in the
provision of low latency data centre solutions to
some of the world’s leading financial institutions,
is a strategic move to improve latency options for
their users. The collaboration between the two
companies is met with interest across the industry
and both parties are excited with their relationship
moving forward.
Interactive Data announced the integration of
EdgeBook Depth in July. This is a product providing full
depth of book information developed by Direct Edge,
the third largest stock exchange in the United States.
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There has been an increasing
trend of start-up businesses that
are beginning to move into the
UK market having been a success
in the US. These companies to
watch out for are centred within
the P2P lending and payments
space, where they have come
up with innovative products, for
which they also see a gap within
the UK market.
Juniper Networks’ CEO Kevin
Johnson is set to retire as soon
as a replacement is found. It is
reported that whilst there are
concerns about the future of
Juniper in terms of their long-
term strategy, Johnson reports
that his departing has nothing
to do with the company’s
performance.
Cisco, however, is doing very well
as they agree to buy Sourcefire
in an approximate $2.7 billion
deal. CEO John Chambers plans
to expand on and hopefully
dominate the cybersecurity
market space in order to ward
off smaller competition such as
Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet.
It is expected that the purchase
of Sourcefire and access to their
intrusion-detection products may
just help Cisco to win even more
business from the corporate and
government customers.
••
“Social
Media
is once
again
making a
comeback
in the
Trading
world”
••
Social Media is once again making a comeback
in the Trading world as companies look to take
advantage of what many see as an untapped
resource. This has been tried before with Derwent
Capital (later DCM Capital), who became known as
the first Twitter Hedge Fund and then subsequently
developed a trading platform that heavily relied
on social media to predict trends. However the
hedge fund was closed and the trading platform was
auctioned off so it seemed that social media would
always struggle to take over. This, combined with
the flash crash earlier this year that was caused by
a hacked twitter account, has given social media
a bad name. However it has seemed to be making
a comeback this month with OneMarketData
producing a survey studying the usage of social
media on Wall Street. The response so far appears
to be that the benefits can be seen but there are
inherent risks with using data that many see as
unreliable.
The battle is on for the Start Up Capital of Britain.
Start Ups, particularly in the FinTech space, are
continuing to appear at a huge rate of knots and
Edinburgh has emerged as a possible City to rival
the emergence of London as the Start Up Capital
of Europe. A number of universities in the area are
backing start ups financially and really giving them
the opportunity to compete on a global scale. It’s
great to see the battle between two British Cities
and good luck to both of them in the battle for
supremacy!
Apple’s profits have been proven to be a lot higher
than estimated. Apple sold over 30 million iPhones
for the June quarter compared to 26 million at
the same period last year. This shows clearly that
customer’s faith in the brand as well as technology,
in general, is growing strong.
Britain currently has the most high-paid bankers
in Europe, according to the European Banking
Authority. Studies show that over 2300 bankers
currently earn a million pounds or more compared
with 739 in the rest of the EU.
An interesting article was also released this
month about Cloud technology rapidly gaining
speed in the Financial services: Banks are quickly
starting to realise that they can only increase their
competitiveness by getting more applications
hosted for them. This has already encouraged
technology providers to be more creative and
focused on delivering increasingly complex
solutions. The future of the Cloud is bright.
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The Buy-side community has seen a common trend for all concerned
with Compliance. With the implications of the new rules and
regulations around the Dodd-Frank reform buy-side companies
have paid a real focus on implementing this regulation with the best
compliance staff their money can buy. Year to date has seen the buy-
side community do very well in financial trading and Technology and
have invested this back into the business to expand and grow. Now
as the deadline approaches with Dodd Frank regulation we are now
seeing these firms build the compliance teams to make sure they are
protected within the regulation.
NYSE Euronext beat rivals London Stock Exchange and Markit to take
control and manage Libor. Libor is currently looked after by London’s
British Bankers Association however lobbyists sought to hand
control to another group to restore confidence to Libor’s reputation.
Meanwhile, IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) is still awaiting final
approval from regulators for their purchase of NYSE Exchange.
Accenture and Broadridge
have launched a new post-trade
solution which will reduce cost
per-trade by leveraging trade
volumes, and will see Societe
Generale Corporate & Investment
Bank confirmed as their first
customer. The initial deal will also
see a number of Societe Generale
staff transfer over to Accenture in
outsource deal.
Bloomberg Tradebook, the
global agency broker arm of
Bloomberg LP, which serves
buy-side and sell-side firms
with trading solutions for global
equities, futures, options and
foreign exchange (FX) trading,
has become self-clearing
after selecting Broadridge
Financial Solutions to provide
technological support for back-
office operations and global
trading, this will benefit their
clients with economies of scale
and compliant processes.
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Bite size news from the financial services
and commodities technology markets.
MARKET
NEWS
COMMODITIES
TECHNOLOGY
T
here have been numerous rumours
of firms talking to each other about
possible buyouts in recent weeks
and we expect to see some major
announcements in the vendor
technology space within E/CTRM in the months
ahead.
Utilities firms continue to be the biggest spenders
with Centrica announcing only yesterday of their
purchase of a business to business gas supplier
in North America for £478m. We expect to see
continued and similar investments to be made for
several years to come.
Ion Trading have completed the takeover of
TriplePoint, signalling firstly the highlight of their
appeal within the market in the last 12-18 months,
and secondly the intent of TriplePoint to become
a global force within the ETRM and Supply chain
piece. WTI Crude oil stockpiles have started to
increase however the trade of crude oil remains
relatively stable. SunGard are moving into a position
of power with Aligne is becoming a more desirable
product. SAP have started to move into the ETRM
space being months away from having a completed
solution themselves.
Statoil (one of Europe’s largest
energy trading companies) has
been hurt by lower gas and oil
prices. This means they are
charging a lower rate in order to
be economically competitive.
However, costs are on the
rise, hence for this month and
the foreseeable short term,
profit margins are dramatically
tightened.
On a more positive note,
Citigroup has announced that
recovery has been observed in
this half of the year, arguably
due to new leadership in Mike
Corbat and his new tactics in
commodities trading. Citigroup
will soon again be one of the
most powerful commodity trading
investment banks in the world.
Battersea Power Station
in London is to be renovated
into apartments and shops.
The building has been bought
by a consortium of Malaysian
companies, who plan to build
hundreds of apartments and
offices, shops and even a
theatre. The power station
was decommissioned over
30 years ago in 1983, however
it still remains a monument
for British Energy.
••
“Citigroup has announced
that recovery has been
observed in this half of
the year.”
••
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With respect to Supply Chain
software many professionals in
the consumer goods industry
are stating that cloud-based
solutions are future of food
supply chains. The adoption of
Cloud-based solutions in the food
and beverage market is seen as
cost-effective, quick and easy to
deploy. Furthermore cloud based
solutions can be accepted by
companies of all sizes. Availability
of these solutions will remove
some of the current technology
barriers to exchanging demand
and compliance information
with suppliers and customers,
leveling the playing field with
larger competitors and driving
innovation. Finally this type of
cloud based solutions offers
supply chain visibility and control
that will be extended throughout
the network and hence reduce
costs for the consumer.
Metal commodity markets have
fallen in recent months. As a
result of this China has slightly
loosened export restrictions.
Sugar jumped almost 3 per cent
to a four-week high as uncertainty
about the impact on output from
bad weather in Brazil.
JP Morgan are to leave the
physical commodities trading
market, but will remain in their
traditional financial commodities
trading business. It is expected
that they will look to sell off
or partner their vast global
trading team and subsidiaries. JP
Morgan who at their peak were
once regarded as the biggest
trader on Wall street made
the announcement following
further scrutiny from the US
Federal Reserve on Wall Street’s
commodity trading operation and
activities.
Hs
In other news relating to JP Morgan, they have
agreed to pay $410 million to settle charges with
the US Energy regulator. This is the second largest
charge in FERC history and comes after the bank
was claimed to have used 5 manipulative bidding
strategies in the US power markets between 2010
and 2011.
European demand for oil is on the rise for the first
time in two years in a sign of increased economic
activity across the continent.
Rio Tinto is pushing ahead with plans to boost iron
ore output over the next 18 months, as it counts on
demand from Chinese steel mills slowing down.
Centrica has continued its expansion in North
America with a £30m deal for Texas-based Bounce
Energy.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi will merge their aluminium
smelters after years of negotiations to create a
United Arab Emirates industrial champion valued at
$15bn including net debt
There are strong indications that the FX market will
move towards an equities style market. This will
allow buy-side to gain ground on the investment
banks and create a whole new layer to the FX trading
landscape. The ability for the buy side to trade
between each other will increase competition and
alter the traditional sell-side dominated FX market.
This has come about due to the pressure buy-
side firms are under to find new revenue streams
resulting in them diversifying their investment
strategies. This will lead a new wave of technical
innovation to support it.
The fallout for BP’s 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill
continues to have a major effect on their annual
results. From the original fund of $20 billion set
aside for compensation there is a reported 300
million remaining and with claims expected to
continue into 2014 with a continued increase of
individual claims this remaining figure would
seem significantly lower than what is required. The
ongoing affect for BP is a further reported decrease
in profits.
••
There
are strong
indications
that the
FX market
will move
towards an
equities
style
market.
••
1 5
G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
his month we have seen a stark rise
in salaries on offer in some of the
financial software vendors. Typically
companies that people had chosen
to join for the opportunity to learn a
product and become an expert in their field are now
recognising that the market is highly competitive.
This competition is rising amongst candidates
with financial experience as well as those without.
As such the vendor world is raising its salary
expectation to rival other financial institutions to
ensure they attract the best staff.
We have seen hints of a standoff between
companies and candidates over the last couple of
months, with candidates looking for an increased
salary bump to compensate for perceived risk of
moving whilst companies are refusing to pay over
the odds for candidates compared to their current
staff. Mostly this has led to compromise between
the two parties but has also seen candidates miss
out on an excellent move in their career for a few
thousand pounds versus significant gains in their
future earnings. Companies have also been using
a signing on fee in order attract candidates whilst
also preserving parity in base salaries across the
business.
Salary fluctuations and trends in financial
services and commodities technology.
SALARY
OVERVIEW
FINANCIAL
TECHNOLOGY
T
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G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
Permanent salaries have
remained steady – and rather
generous for graduates. We are
seeing some entry level graduate
jobs paying as much as £35,000
basic salary as companies wish
to snap up the brightest talent
and keep them in the company
to develop them into tomorrow’s
leaders.
The market is back and booming
with talent. People are interested
in hearing about new positions
that can elevate their career to
the next level. If you are looking
for individuals with a mixture
of skills and a client facing
ability these candidates are
becoming priceless as businesses
continue to see the benefits to
this personality and technical
combination.
Smaller end user firms are
fighting the temptation to provide
higher salaries by continuing
to manage their books by
committing to lower salaries
but higher performance related
bonuses. On the vendor and
consultancy side, salaries have
steadied recently for non-urgent
hires.
In the boom of vendor start-
ups, salaries are often offset
by the opportunity to work in
a growing business and share
business autonomy, to caveat this
there have also been numerous
occasions where these start-ups
have had to compete with the
market to get the right candidate
for the company that also shares
the long term values so a better
long term investment.
The market for QA Engineers and Test Managers
has seen an increase in Rate for 2013. Clients have
paid a real focus on hiring the top talent in the
Quality Engineering and Testing space. This year
we have seen an increase of between 10% - 12%
for Contract rates for Testers which is great news.
The reason for this is that during the first 6 months
of the year many clients were busy building the
Development teams bringing in C++, Java and
.NET Programmers. Now those requirements are
filled they want to complete the team with Senior
Testers and QA Engineers with the same calibre of
the development team. This has pushed the rate
upwards as the client requirement is that Testers
and QA engineers must be able to understand the
business as well as improve performance or test for
bugs. No longer will the run of the mill do.
Risk, Regulations and Compliance projects are
continuing the same trends as last month. The
main onus are IT projects that are being driven by
regulation including EMIR, Dodd-Frank, Basel III,
MiFID. There are so many regulatory changes that
Financial Services institutions are facing challenges
in multiple areas of their businesses. This has
led to an increase in demand at a senior level for
professionals who are able to manage and drive
IT strategy on a global scale, across multiple work
streams and have experience delivering large scale
projects.
The Contract market sees requirements
and opportunities being signed off, however
rates remain in line with H1 levels due to the
overwhelming supply of existing contractors in the
job queues. As the resource pool depletes which we
expect towards the end of Q3, rates may begin to
rise in favour of the contractors.
••
“The market is back and
booming with talent.”
••
Hs
CONTRACT
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G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
alaries have remained stable for the
most part, however we have seen a few
consultancies paying slightly over the
industry standard to secure candidates
for projects due to start.
We are finding that the demand for commodity
contractors waning, however organisations are still
willing to pay the money for good contractors to
come in and do the job. Candidates with multiple
systems knowledge are becoming more appealing
to bigger corporations and are willing to pay
slightly more for these candidates over their single
system knowledge counterparts. We have found an
increasing demand for technical skills and business
knowledge learnt from that perspective rather than
from a strictly trading or business angle.
There has been a slight increase in contract rate
in the supply chain sector, this is arguably to due
to the lack of good contractor’s available and the
fact that supply chain software implementation
experience in commodities is rare.
SALARY
OVERVIEW
COMMODITIES
TECHNOLOGY
Salary fluctuations and trends in financial
services and commodities technology.
S
Many companies in the
commodities industry, however,
prefer to employ supply chain
software vendors to come and
implement the solution and will
only have a few perm employees
to maintain the system.
WHEN LOOKING AT SOME
OF THE KEY GROWTH AND
DEMAND AREAS SPECIFIC
TO THE ENERGY AND
COMMODITIES MARKETS WE
HAVE IDENTIFIED THAT THE
FOLLOWING POSITIONS ARE
OF INCREASING DEMAND:
■ Sales and Technical
sales Professionals who are
experienced in within the E/CTRM
or other energy risk systems
are in continued demand. We
are seeing this on a global
basis where salaries depending
on experience range between
£70,000 to £100,000 and bonus.
■ Project Management skills
particularly those with experience
of managing the delivery of
enterprise level solutions are
especially sought after. Those
with experience in the energy
markets can demand a salary of
£75,000 to £90,000 plus package.
Hs
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G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
inux has emerged as the most in demand operating
system in demand by employers outshining the previously
dominant Windows. This could be down to Linux being
generally considered more secure than Windows albeit an
open source system which many said would never be as
secure as a proprietary one.
The importance of infrastructure design for High Performance
Computing is becoming more apparent. High frequency low latency
trading environments depend on lean power generation methods and
the infrastructure supporting these environments has to be bespoke
and designed to specific operational environments.
Hands on technical people with the ability to talk to the business are
becoming more and more in demand. The market has been shifting to
support the growth of specialist products that are supplied to the end
user meaning there are fewer large rooms with hundreds of pure coders.
Communication and interaction within the team attributes to efficient
solutions so having a team of hybrid professionals; skilled in both techy
and interpersonal skills may effectively save you time and money.
The skill sets most in demand
in financial services and
commodities technology.
HIGH
DEMAND
SKILLS
FINANCIAL
TECHNOLOGY
L
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G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
Due to the epoch of companies
like Facebook, Google and
Amazon, there has been a spark
in the market for the more
innovative and technically diverse
individuals who see programming
as more of a hobby than a day
to day job. This will become
a growing trend in the market
as financial companies seek to
make their environments more
‘tech’ friendly and to encourage
developers and testers to join
them as a business.
With regards to infrastructure,
Linux skills are more in demand
and more and more so chosen
over Windows technology in the
FS space. Linux infrastructure
engineers/system administrators
are very much preferred to
candidates with only Windows
exposure. This may simply be
down to more organisations
having more of a Linux focus as
it has always been debatable that
Linux does what Windows can’t
and won’t. Therefore, as more
organisations use Linux as choice
of infrastructure, the skillset is
ever growing in demand.
From a development point of
view, this month has not been
about a specific skill but has been
about Open Source development,
in particular having a presence
on GitHub. GitHub is an Open
source platform that allows
developers to showcase their
own work and develop on other
people’s projects. This experience
has been in extremely high
demand this month due to the
fact that companies are looking
for a better way of telling who
are the best programmers and
this offers them an insight into
someone’s passion.
The stars of this month in terms of demand
are testers, but more particularly, Automation
testers. Whether it is QTP, Selenium or Cucumber,
Automation skills are in demand. ISEB/ITQSB
certifications are, however, becoming a must in the
Testing area and Financial companies seem to use
them more and more as a criteria when selecting
candidates.
Testing Analyst and Test Managers within HFT and
Algo Trading have seen a trend for the first time
this year. As the ever increasing market for HFT and
Algo continues to grow the real growing pains are
that these systems run smoothly and bug free. With
a high order rate the impact of software bugs can
be disastrous to the trading book and so we have
seen an increase in Test Analyst coming into the
market for various Market Makers and Prop trading
firms. What has been really interesting in the mix
of both Manuel and Automated Test experience
that is required by such firms. We predict a healthy
market for the second half of 2013 for Tester and
Test Managers that have experience in HFT and Low
latency applications.
Experience testers with BDD and TDD are fast
tracking their careers as this shows an in depth
knowledge of Testing.
We’ve mentioned this before but right now it is
so critical to the financial services industry that
it deserves to be mentioned again. Knowledge
of regulations, liquidity, risk and compliance is
key for investment banks, brokerages and asset
management companies. Professionals who can
have equally strong knowledge of both regulation
and IT and can bridge the gap between Risk,
Compliance, IT and Operations are in high demand.
Candidates with strong business analysis skills
around the technical and functional elements of
electronic trading are a rare breed. Clients are
keen to identify Business Analysts with industry
qualifications and certifications as they look
to improve existing processes in light of the
increasing regulatory landscape. Specialist Business
Analysts who can couple the strong process side
with in-depth asset class knowledge remain very
marketable.
CONTRACT••
“Analysts
who can
couple
the strong
process
side with
in-depth
asset class
knowledge
remain
very
marketable.”
••
Hs
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G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
odd Franks is still a skill set required
in most trading organisations as they
work to bring themselves in line with
the new regulations. Candidates with
Triple Point’s CXL Software knowledge
are in high demand. This is to help deliver the
number of projects Triple Point secured last year.
We’re still seeing a growing need for candidates
with strong business knowledge around soft
commodities and linking this with technology.
Trading Technology Software Salesman are still
wanted by many Software Vendors. This is due to
the demand for new applications currently in the
market place.
A new trend amongst employers in FST is to opt for
candidate who can combine technical and business
expertise into a single role. There was a time when
separate business and technical experts would
partner to deliver projects. With many companies
under pressure to run lean operations, those
candidates with strong business and technical skills
are winning the race to the best jobs. The borders
between ‘traditional’ business analyst and technical
consultant roles, for example, have become blurred.
The challenge now is to find candidates that are
strong in both areas as client expectations of what
they consider a strong business and technical
candidate are rising. Candidates who have
diversified their skills to include both business and
technical expertise are reaping the benefits of their
shrewd career moves and are a commodity in the
current job market.
HIGH
DEMAND
SKILLS
COMMODITIES
TECHNOLOGY
The skill sets most in demand
in financial services and
commodities technology.
D
There has been an increase
in demand for Endur Upgrade
Business Analysts as a few
projects have commenced
throughout the industry.
Business orientated Business
Analysts are on the increase with
organisations preferring this over
IT focused individuals.
One of the key skill sets in
demand is the ability to act as a
Business Analyst and act as an
advisor on commodity/energy
trading and risk management
systems. This is highly sought
after skill set in the consultancies,
especially as many end users are
looking to upgrade or change their
E/CTRM system. However many
E/CTRM consultants still enjoy
technical configuration and hence
don’t want to be an advisor.
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G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
Another technology in high demand is SAP Supply
Chain Management software. SAP SCM solutions
is being used in a variety of raw material and
commodity companies as it is one of the more
traditional supply chain solutions and has a great
reputations for successful implementation.
Supply Chain software architects are in high
demand. These are consultants that are able to
implement and redesign the supply chain solution
on client site. This is a high demand skill set
because companies now want a tailored solution
and not just a simple plug and play system.
However this does mean that supply chain vendors
are having to invest more into training to make sure
their consultants can meet clients expectations.
Hs
••
“Candidates who
have diversified
their skills to
include both
business and
technical
expertise are
reaping the
benefits of their
shrewd career
moves.”
••
In the market the demand
for CXL and Aligne is
always increasing which is
understandable due to the
software vendors that produce
them and their place in the
market. Hiring managers are
becoming more flexible in
what system knowledge
candidates have. Murex and
their system are starting to
move away from just the risk
aspects and immerse themselves
into the commodities arena.
The energy and commodities
market is continuing to trend in
a very positive manner from a
recruitment perspective. This is
a view that we have continued
to express since the start of 2013
and the industry has continued to
hold this demand.
One of the areas where we
have experienced further
demand for commodity and
energy technologists is within
the consultancy markets. As
organisations seek to mitigate
risk and non-traditional trading
organisations seek to invest
in new procurement solutions
they are increasingly seeking
professional advice to assist
them.
As already discussed commodity
software sales professionals are in
great demand with consultancies
and Vendors seeking experienced
sales and presales candidates.
This is very much a global
demand with needs across EMEA,
the US and Asia.
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G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
arket trading
conditions have
stabilised across
the board. Equities,
after a drop last
year are back into a volatile
market. The FX market has been
building out across the year as
well as Derivatives products.
As a result we have seen a rise
in technology across all these
market areas in terms of systems,
application and functionality
development.
We are seeing a current trend
where roles within financial
services are opening up to people
from outside finance if they have
the right technical skill set, clear
communication, attitude to learn
and passion for the business.
These types of opportunities were
once ‘blue moon’ situations are
becoming more common place.
We are putting this down to
time of year, the rise in technical
talent, the new awareness
that every business is unique
and won’t necessarily have
transferable skills from one asset
to another and more importantly
the new focus on longevity within
a person.
The major business developments and
themes in FS and commodities technology.
BUSINESS
TRENDING
FINANCIAL
TECHNOLOGY
M
The High Frequency Trading debate has been
polarising opinions all year and this month has
been no different. Whether it was been the proposed
introductions of a tax on HFT Traders or claims
that HFT doesn’t drive investors from the markets
a whole range of opinions are available. What is
certain is that this debate isn’t going anywhere
and HFT Traders continue to be an easy target for
anyone looking to take a pot shot at the Financial
Industry. It remains to be seen whether there will
be any constructive arguments on the issue or how
long the debate will go on for.
••
“We are seeing a current
trend where roles within
financial services are
opening up to people
from outside finance.”
••
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G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
The Start Up trend is continuing
to go crazy. If you can aim an
established business then you’ll
almost be certainly be able to
find a start-up who are aiming
to do it better, faster and make
it easier. This is dominated
by FinTech companies and
often they are stocked full of
former Investment Banking or
Hedge Fund big hitters who
have decided to take on the
established market leaders. The
outcome of this will either be
a number of people looking for
new jobs if the Start Ups begin to
struggle.
The market is competitive for
good talent, people are acting
quickly when they identify
candidates they like and being
flexible on consolidating
processes if candidates are in
demand. This month has been
hiring off the back of up-coming
projects and this will continue
into the next couple of months.
Every month there are more and
more specialist firms building
the cutting edge technology for
specific end user requirements.
These businesses are made up
of experienced individuals who
bring market changing ideas
together in companies that
behave like a hub of innovation.
As their main focus is to deliver
this technology, they are able
to react quicker to revolutionary
new ideas and this then in
turn benefits the end user
environments keeping ahead of
the market.
The business of Exchanges has
been increasingly busy during
the last half of the year and the
predication is this will continue
for the rest of 2013. There is
confidence in the UK and Global
economy being reported by the
media and Government which is
having an impact. The appetite
to make more money in the
various Asset Classes across FST
is keeping the Global exchanges
busy. According to the WFE the
European market in the month
of May continued to serge in for
the 4th consecutive month this
year. June and July figures are
due to be released. Cash markets
have seen the bulk of the success
where Derivatives contracts is
running on a minus from last
year’s figures.
One of the implications of the
new faced regulations banks
are facing such as Basel III, the
Dodd-Frank Act and EMIR is
that Banks are becoming more
efficient. Compliance has driven
systematic process improvements
and acts such as Basel III and
Dodd-Frank are having the impact
of driving Banks to improve their
management of counterparty risk.
Trends from across the Business
sector suggest a positive move
in the economy with industry
experts such as Sir John Gieve
and Charles Goodhart claiming
the economy is about to reach
“escape velocity”. This means we
could soon see growth reaching
2.5% or more. This coupled with
consumer confidence reaching
a 3 year high positions the
UK economy in an optimistic
position. The wider spread
confidence is yet to fully effect
the financial services technology
community but H1 2013 volumes
are up 22% vs H2 2012 numbers
with flow into European Equities
turning positive for the year.
••
“These businesses are made up of experienced
individuals who bring market changing ideas together
in companies that behave like a hub of innovation.”
••
Hs
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G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
nvestment Banks have continued to
shrink their activity in Energy Trading.
Banks across Europe have streamlined
their trading activity over the last 6
months and in some cases stopped
trading certain products.
A big emphasis is still being placed on the
importance of LNG and LPG. Singapore and
generally the Far East are establishing themselves
as an Energy power house in the market. There has
been a recent of discovery of fracking for shale gas
has been the biggest talk around the energy market
and the possible future it spells for fuel extraction in
the future. However as a result many questions have
been brought up surrounding the issue of fracking
i.e. Is there a more cost efficient way of doing
so? What are the repercussions of doing so, long
term and short term? The emphasis of technical
abilities is surpassing the need for business
knowledge dependant on how they came across that
knowledge.
There have been some recent changes in the
commodity trading market. Many investment banks
and commodity brokerages are seeing investors flee
from commodities. This is happening to such an
extent that it has been a record amount of investors
exiting the commodities investment industry in
such a short space of time. Subsequently it is a
range of investors that are exiting the market not
just high net worth individuals.
Whilst it has opened up an enormous political
issue, Britain can extract enough shale gas to meet
its needs for almost a decade. How this develops
and the impact it has on Commodities Trading
Technology in the UK will be watched with more
than a keen eye.
COMMODITIES
TECHNOLOGY
I
BUSINESS
TRENDINGThe major business developments and
themes in FS and commodities technology.
Saudi Arabia has boosted its
crude oil production to a seven-
month high as the world’s largest
oil exporting country prepares to
meet a surge in demand.
Deutsche Bank is opening a vault
in Singapore that can hold $9
billion of gold, as it hopes to tap
rising demand for the precious
metal in Asia. This in turn will
enlarge their footprint in Asia.
The effects of the global
fracking boom continues to gain
momentum. In the past week
Saudi Prince Awaleed made a
statement claiming that Fracking
is going to crush the Saudi
economy if nothing is done.
He continued by saying that
the region should diversify into
other areas such as renewable
energy. This might be slightly
exaggerated statement, but it
also highlights the potential
effect that fracking could have on
the global energy markets.
We have seen a reduction in
demand on raw materials and
prices falling on the commodities
market largely due to the
reduction in demand from China,
but also due to a fall of 3.3%
in industrial output in Japan
coinciding with a weaker than
expected report on the Japanese
economy.
Hs
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G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
irtualisation is
becoming more and
more prominent
and there are
emerging virtual
technologies to go alongside
the leading competitors such
as VMware. VMware is still the
dominant force in that market
and the demand for experience
with it is becoming a prerequisite
for most infrastructure roles
coming through.
Cloud, web hosted platforms,
SaaS has been expanding
amongst many young hedge
funds, asset managers and
prop trading shops due to the
flexibility that it provides versus
the reduced costs against owning
all of the technology in house.
The principal technology developments
in financial and commodities technology.
TECHNOLOGY
TRENDING
FINANCIAL
TECHNOLOGY
V
••
“There is a
continued
growth in
demand for
technologies
that in past
have stayed
in the
background.”
••
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G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
There is also a continued growth in demand
for technologies that in past have stayed in the
background, tech’s like Ruby and Python are being
used across the industry instead of C++, C# and
Java. There is however a huge demand in varying
degrees of experience for talented Java, C# and
C++. C# opportunities are still very prevalent in the
market particularly for web development positions
as more greenfield projects will begin in the latter
part of the year.
Automation testers are undoubtedly the hottest
thing in town, they are sought to do a higher
end testing procedure and take upon more of an
exploratory testing position to attempt to break the
products to ensure their stability.
C++ has definitely made a comeback this month,
with the dip at the beginning of the year definitely
appearing to have subsided. Moreover it hasn’t
simply been the HFT and Proprietary Trading
Firms (the typical home of C++ Developers) but
also Vendor’s who have been looking to add C++
Developers to their team. It seems that budgets
have finely been signed off and firms have had the
go ahead to add new developers to their teams.
As mentioned above, Python is also becoming
more popular and definitely seems to be the
language of choice when it comes to Fintech Start
ups that are looking for a language that is able to
handle both the front and back end development.
Python has typically been the hobbyist’s language
of choice but has less frequently been used in
a commercial environment. This is definitely
starting to change and anyone with strong Python
knowledge could find themselves in a very strong
position over the next few months.
Many software companies had already predicted
their increasing importance, but the Financial
industry now knows that Mobile technologies are
the future of transactions. More and more effort is
being put into developing mobile applications and
very soon, testers and developers will have to adapt.
We can already notice a huge increase in demand
for these particular skills as firms are starting to
realise that finding a niche in the market as well as
technical partners who will be able to provide them
with ideas and the right tools to move forward is
crucial if they want to remain competitive.
FIX Protocol and MiFID have been moving in the
right direction. According to the Tabb Group 56%
of Equity trades are executed in the US and 38%
across Europe showing that the Protocols are more
important than ever. Any business within the Ultra
low Latency networks and trading platforms have
paid a real investment into those technologies
that allow them to get to market faster. TCP/IP and
sockets for FIX and Protocols is the topic of the
month within Developers and Testers. Clients are
also interested in Networks for hardware levels,
packet levels and Transactional levels experience.
As the market gets more and more competitive
in the Algo and Prop trading space the ability to
capture those percentages I mentioned earlier is the
difference with success and failure.
••
“It seems that
budgets have
finely been
signed off
and firms
have had the
go ahead to
add new
developers
to their
teams.”
••
Hs
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G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
TECHNOLOGY
TRENDING
COMMODITIES
TECHNOLOGY
The principal technology developments in
financial and commodities technology.
loud computing continues to be a topic of conversation.
Many Smaller firms with low IT budget have found the
cloud solution the best way to as they meet all the
regulation requirements and do not need large IT teams
to manage and support the software. We’re still waiting
for the first Tier 1 to implement Cloud and how far they do, however, is
something which is more ambiguous.
In the supply chain sector there have been some great wins for
two vendors Kewill and the newcomer to the SC area, Triple Point.
According to recent data these two vendors have acquired the most
new clients; however the size of the implementation has been a lot
smaller in comparison to the traditional vendors such as SAP, Oracle
and JDA.
Reports on JDA have cemented that they are now the largest supply
chain vendor eating up the most market share of the global supply
chain industry. However other vendors such as Manhattan associates
and Epicor are chasing down this mammoth supplier.
C
Hs
Amid further scrutiny and regulatory restrictions
across the energy and commodity markets we are
continuing to see an increase in demand for risk
management solutions. Risk professionals rely
heavily on IT systems in managing their risk and
with the continued need to meet market regulations
the demand on these systems and the need to
evolve is at a premium.
We are also seeing non-traditional trading
businesses seeking to invest in E/CTRM systems as
part of a new focus on adapting their procurement
activities. This is having the effect of increasing the
demand on ETRM and CTRM providers to provide
innovative and adaptive solutions in what is an
already highly competitive market.
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G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
For graduate roles it is important to look at
what skills are there already and be prepared
to offer training. A personality fit can be much more
beneficial in the long term than someone who
might already tick every box. Graduate roles should
be all about development within a company and
the more a company is willing to expose a young
candidate to the training they require to progress
their own IT careers, the more likely they are to
spend that career within the company that gave
them that opportunity.
TIPS FOR
COMPANIES
LOOKING
TO HIRE
Over the course of the year, the market has
changed into a job heavy market. There are
less quality candidates available in the market place
and the need for networks and passive candidate
pool is become more and more required. As a
recruiting manager, it can become a significant
advantage should you need to align yourself with
minimal agencies who know your market and can
access relevant profiles for your business. Keeping
your process clear and streamlined is becoming a
significant advantage.
FINANCIAL
TECHNOLOGY
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G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
When the market is getting
increasingly demanding in
terms of specific skills, it is crucial
for managers to sometimes step
away from the ‘perfect candidate
with all the skills required’
and instead, gain flexibility
and invest in training. In the
current climate it is way more
important to spot a passionate
and talented professional with
personality who can be trained
and developed and will become
a core member of the team, than
finding somebody who ticks all
the boxes but might not stay with
you for more than a year.
Every candidate is different
and sometimes you
will come across that perfect
candidate or a candidate that is
either under paid or willing to
take a salary drop to join your
firm. Don’t let this prejudice your
future searches and remember
that if you want to find the
absolutely perfect candidate the
search will take longer. Some of
the best hires can be candidates
with 75% of the skills that you
are looking for but who have the
right attitude and are able to
dramatically improve once they
join your firm. It’s always better
to hire someone with the right
attitude over someone with all
the skills but with the wrong
personality for your team.
As competition continues to increase and candidates are open
to more offers and opportunities, it is still a good thing if hiring
managers can be flexible around interviewing and getting favourable
candidates in to interview before potentially losing them altogether.
To protect your investment in time during interview process but
more importantly protect your balance sheet long term, there
is substantial research and evidence suggesting hiring based on a
combination of existing talent, potential talent and common values.
The studies explain that bringing in a team member sharing the same
common beliefs has a far better effect on the long term performance
of the overall collective compared to a superstar individuals.
We are seeing increased activity with hiring with many candidates
now getting multiple opportunities. To make sure you secure
your first choice candidate, turn the offer letter and contract round
quickly. We are seeing a lot of companies drag their heels on getting
the paper work out. As hiring activity increases you could find you miss
out on the candidate you want.
We would like to remind hiring managers to build in planning for
the summer and if you have openings in your teams be conscious
that CEO / CTO sign-off may be delayed if people are going to be on
holiday. Wherever possible, we recommend trying to align all the
necessary processes early to ensure that when you identify the right
candidate, you are able to secure them and get them on board.
If there is any advice that we can give to hiring managers, it is to
be as visible as possible. Explain problems to your recruiter so
they can manage the candidate’s expectations. You don’t want to lose
the ideal candidate over a simple error of miscommunication
If you are struggling to hire for a certain position think about if
there is any scope for flexibility in any particular area from the
salary to the skill demand required. When you find a candidate that
you like, move quickly because the likelihood is that they will be
interviewing elsewhere.
We are seeing contracts being offered at 6 to 12 months in length
which allows hiring managers to reduce the overall cost of hiring
contract resource. The 3 month contracts, which are fast fill, band
aids tend to drain the most costs from hiring budgets. If you have
the ability to extend contract lengths or the sign off to offer over an
extended period, you will see more value for money in the contract
resources you bring in as negotiations will be favourable to you.
Hs
COMMODITIES
TECHNOLOGY
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Improving skills is a must. Anything you can
take on in your own time from graduate up to
management via blogs, qualifications, magazines
just to boost all round knowledge can only be
helpful in the hunt for a job.
This coupled with total honesty from the start
of your job hunt, with agents, employers and
yourself. A tangled web of deceit will trip up the
most solid of applications.
TIPS FOR
CANDIDATES
LOOKING FOR
WORK
Despite the market growth
and the pickup of the
economy, it is still a competitive
market place for candidates. It
is vital to take the time to build
a strong CV for yourself, this is
easier said than done. They key
things to remember are to keep
it to the point, bullet pointed
with context and include the
technologies and versions used.
Spelling and grammar is always
essential to get right and it is
always good to refer in the past
tense. Check out our YouTube
video for further details and/or
get in touch with a consultant
at Harrington Starr if you want
some advice.
FINANCIAL
TECHNOLOGY
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Spending some time on
your CV, explaining what
you have actually been doing,
what tools you have been using
and how you have used them will
give a deeper understanding of
what you could potentially bring
to a new employer. Investment
of time here will maximise the
productivity of your job search.
Identify what is important
to you, what you enjoy
and where you want your career
to take you, this makes it much
easier for candidates identify
opportunities that match they’re
desires, this in turn transpires to
hiring managers and improves
your chances.
It sounds so simple
but there has been an
increasing number of hiring
managers that have said agents
have sent them candidates who
have lied on their CV’s and been
dishonest immediately putting in
the candidate in a bad light. One
of the key points in an interview
is to be honest but show that
you are willing to do anything
to get yourself up to scratch or
where you need to be.
Another point in this
market, there is a lot of
competition for positions and
candidates need to be very
aware not to be too cocky or
confident and to seem interested
in the position without being
pushy or nosey on the little facts
at early stages.
Be sure to prepare well for
interviews and make sure
you leave a lasting impression
in the best way possible. Make
sure you can account for every
sentence and skill on your CV
and make sure you have done
research into the company and
know as much as possible about
the role you are interviewing for.
It is also important to remember that although
some hiring managers can interview in a
relaxed manner, this sometimes is to assess how far
you will take the term “comfortable” so do not fall
into the trap of thinking that is may be as informal
as it seems. Be relaxed but not too relaxed.
Utilise LinkedIn to the best of your ability
– make yourself as marketable as possible.
Connect to all companies you are interested in
and make sure you have the most up to date copy
of your CV downloadable from your profile. If you
are really big on technology, maybe even consider
writing a blog or a few articles to post onto your
LinkedIn account as these small things can make a
big difference in illustrating just how serious you are
about making the next big move.
Remember how important it is to be honest
on your CV – even with minor details. We hear
horror stories of candidates who have on their CV’s
with skills that weren’t necessary for the position
but have ended up costing them the opportunity.
Don’t put a technology or a type of system on your
CV if you aren’t fully able to answer questions on
the them in the interview. Even if the skill isn’t
important to the role it can put managers off your
profile and is one of the most common pet peeves
that we hear from managers.
Many Developers will pack their CV’s full of
every single technology they have come across
or used very briefly. However often it is the opposite
that can really impress managers. A clear concise
description of the core technologies that you have
used and the ways that you have used them will
impress managers, especially when you are able
to confidently and coherently answer questions
on them in the interview. Remember that less can
equal more.
For developers and testers, the trend is
clear. If you want to find the best possible
opportunities in Finance, you have got to start
playing around with Mobile applications and read
about Finance to start getting a real understanding
of what the requirements given to you really mean
to the business you are/will be working for.
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The Market is rapidly changing and the
systems which have to be developed and
tested are getting increasingly complex. This
means that financial firms now require candidates
to get a grasp of the basics of Finance to be able to
get an advantage on their competitors.
Even in this candidate driven market place
where there are many roles and limited people
to fill them we are finding that sometimes the best
people are letting themselves down in the interview
process. More often than not full preparation or
technical revision has lacked. Interviews are not
letting the market dictate their decisions and are
waiting for the right people to ensure ling tern
personality fit. We are encouraging candidates
to fully consider their options so that they can
interview genuinely with honest passion and
preparation.
Make sure during your interview you explain
why you want to join the company. During this
conversation make sure you give real value to what
the company do and what you are looking to achieve
and why. Many candidates miss this opportunity to
express their desire to join a company. Managers
are much more likely to hire candidates who want
to work for them, so please let express that desire
during your interview.
Research the company before you go into the
interview this will allow you understand where
the organisation is coming from and provide you
the ability to ask question to the hiring mangers
afterwards. Be very clear about what you want and
why you want this can vary from salary demands to
what industry you work in. Do as much research as
you can and make sure you show your enthusiasm
for the position. This is key with the amount of
candidates going for the position you need to
stand out. Take your time and prepare, practice
questions and visit your recruiter to practice the
interview. A little bit of practice can make the
difference between an average interview and an
excellent interview.
COMMODITIES
TECHNOLOGY
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G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
Ensure that your online profile is up to date
and that your key skills are regularly repeated
throughout. This will enable you to be found easier
by organisations. Also make sure you have a profile
picture on your profile as you are ten times more
likely to be viewed.
It is very important to include both technical
& business knowledge of your CV and be
specific – if you are mentioning a technology be very
clear about your skills in this area e.g. SQL (read &
write queries, multi-table joins, triggers), likewise
for business knowledge e.g. Fixed Income (direct
front office exposure & knowledge of trade entry and
pricing) – this will ensure anyone reading your CV
will very quickly be able to get an accurate overview
of your knowledge.
It is also important to resist the temptation
to overstate your knowledge. A number of
candidates will list numerous technologies &
business areas that, upon further investigation,
are not known in any appreciable level of detail.
Rather than demonstrating that your knowledge is
broad, this will almost certainly be highlighted at
interview stage and will undermine your credibility
as a candidate. Be specific, honest & detailed about
the areas you really know, don’t exaggerate areas
you don’t.
Due to market conditions over the past few
years there has broadly been a reluctance on
the side of candidates to make their next career
move. However with the increased positivity across
the recruitment market within financial services
and commodity technology we believe that this
as an ideal time for candidates to explore new
opportunities and leverage their careers by making
that next step in their career. Those candidates
who are open to change and willing to explore new
opportunities will be get the rewards.
Hs
Contract candidates who
have taken on a number of
various short term engagements,
can make their CVs more legible
and attractive to prospective
employers by listing the company
they were working for (either
Limited or Umbrella company)
and then putting down the
various roles as projects. This
will make the contractor appear
more consultative in nature
and will soften the questions
surrounding the ‘jumpiness’ of
his employment.
It’s holiday season, it can
be slow this time of year
to look for a position. Roles can
drag on as key decision-makers
are on holiday and lengthen the
recruitment process. Do not get
disappointed by this, it is one of
the trends in the contracting job
market. Instead, use this time to
reinvest in yourself, if there are
any qualifications or courses that
are relevant to your profession
then use this as an opportunity
to increase your employability
then push on again with your
job search with a more
employable CV.
CONTRACT
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HARRINGTON STARR
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Notifications and the latest
from Harrington Starr.
EVENTS
We were delighted to be the event
partner alongside the Currency
Cloud for London New Finance’s
meetup “Finance in the Cloud” at
the Cass Business School.
A collection of 100 technology
professionals, service providers
and entrepreneurs met to enjoy
a lively education and debate on
the future of Cloud in FinTech
with excellent speakers in George
Kaye of Derivitiec, Jared Broad
from QuantConnect and Gary
Turner from Xero.
Thanks again to Eddie for
arranging such a great event
and it was lovely to meet
some genuinely inspirational
innovators in the space. We are
looking forward to working with
London New Finance on future
events and will keep you informed
on dates and subjects.
Harrington Starr Event Partner
London New Finance “Finance in the Cloud”
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The Fourth Financial Services and Commodities
Technology breakfast is now almost fully booked
with over 100 leaders in the sector set to join us at
the Westbury Hotel in Mayfair on September 24th.
The keynote will be led by Ben Hunt-Davis MBE
who won Gold for Team GB at the Sydney Olympics.
Ben’s company “Will it Make the Boat go Faster”
focuses on bringing Olympic Winning Strategies
to Everyday life. Described as one of the most
inspirational speakers in the UK, we are looking
forward to the event already.
The networking breakfasts are designed to create
opportunities for our clients, connecting the
community and we are delighted that successful
business returns have been made in every event
to date. Having outgrown the Ritz, the new venue
brings our biggest audience yet and we are excited
by both the calibre of the guest list as it stands and
the range of opportunities that we believe will be
presented to the delegates.
Please contact us or CLICK HERE should you be
interested in joining us at this exclusive, invitation
only event.
The Fourth Financial Services And
Commodities Networking Breakfast
EVENTS
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The First Annual Harrington Starr seminar is booked
for October 22nd. Over 250 of the World’s leaders in
financial services and commodities technology will
join us at the Westbury Hotel to explore Talent in
the 21ST Century.
Two panels will look at the links between sport and
business to explore what can be done to better
identify talent and define what makes a team great.
Talent In
The 21st Century
Talent in the
21st Century
THE WESTBURY HOTEL
MAYFAIR, LONDON
TUESDAY OCTOBER 22nd, 8am
Simon Hartley
Author, Sport Psychology
Consultant, Performance
Coach and Founder of Be-
World-Class.
Greg Searle MBE
Practice Director at Lane4,
Gold Medallist and 3 time
Olympian and author of “If
not now then when.”
Ben Hunt-Davis MBE
Gold Medal winning
Olympian and Founder of
Will it Make the Boat go
Faster.
Simon Sear
Senior Change Consultant
in Commodities Trading
and Author of Kencho,
the Art of Happiness.
Khoi Tu
Author of SuperTeams
and an international
teamwork and leadership
consultant.
THE FIRST PANEL WILL LOOK AT THE COMMON
CHARACTERISTICS OF ELITE PERFORMERS AND
WHAT DEFINES THE GREATEST TEAMS IN HISTORY.
THIS LOOKS SET TO INCLUDE:
PANEL1
EVENTS
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G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
Invitations to the event will start to be sent in mid
October and again, extensive opportunities will
exist for networking and business introductions.
We want our audience to go away with practical
strategies to implement in their businesses to make
better hiring decisions, improve team performance
and improve retention.
More details to follow.
Blake Wooster
Founder of the 21st Club,
Author of Touchlinetoboardroom
and former director at
Prozone Sports.
Rasmus Ankersen
Author of the Gold Mine
Effect, high performance
anthropologist and International
business consultant.
Mike Forde
Director of Football
Operations at Chelsea
FC and international
business speaker.
Lee McQueen
Founder of the Raw
Talent Academy and
winner of the
Apprentice 2008.
Toby Babb
Founder and Director of Harrington
Starr with 15 years of building
teams in financial services and
commodities technology.
PANEL
2
Talent In
The 21st Century
THE SECOND PANEL WILL DISCUSS
THE TALENT CYCLE: IDENTIFICATION,
RECRUITMENT, DEVELOPMENT, RETENTION
AND RELEASE. THIS PANEL WILL INCLUDE:
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G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
CONTRACT RATE SURVEY
July also saw the sector’s most comprehensive
contract rate survey released. Looking at 538
separate rates bands and pooling information
from 4,950 contract technology professionals and
2,200 companies, this shows headline figures of an
average rate of £461 a day in the industry.
For a full copy of this outstanding
document, please get in touch with
the Harrington Starr contract team.
WEBSITE
The launch of the Harrington Starr website is now
set for mid August. Breaking the norms of just being
an online job board or brochure, the site will be
a destination for content and information in the
financial services and commodities technology
sector.
White papers and surveys will be able to be
accessed and downloaded, we will maintain a
constatnt stream of content, have blog articles from
leaders in FinTech, Commodities, and performance
and look to produce articles and information that
assists all of our customers.
We’d love to hear your feedback and will work to
ensure that we create a site that is moulded to your
needs. Additionally, should you wish to contribute
articles or release news in your business, contact
our editorial team on 0203 587 7007.
VIDEO
The Harrington Starr YouTube Channel is another
complimentary service designed to help our
candidates and clients. Shooting of the next series
happened in late July and August will see seven
more video guides released including:
■ What investors look for in FinTech Start Ups
■ The Three Biggest Interview Mistakes
■ Retaining Talent
■ Building your online profile
■ Preparing the perfect CV
■ Delivering World Class Interviews
We hope they help and please feel free to get in
touch for more information or free one to one
consultancy services from the Harrington Starr
team.
Here is an example:
Click to view
To visit our You Tube
channel, please click here
TIPS TO
PREPARE FOR
YOUR INTERVIEW
IN FINANCIAL
SERVICES AND
COMMODITIES
TECHNOLOGY
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WHITEPAPERS
August will see the next series of Harrington Starr
White Papers released including:
■ A special report of women
	 in financial technology
■ A guide to FinTech Start Ups
	 and what Investors look for
■ Supply Chain Software
■ Regulatory Compliance
	 for Energy & Commodity Trading
■ The Route to a Six Figure Salary in Technology
■ A Guide to Maximising your Online Profile
Accessible through the download section of the new
website, we will produce monthly papers aimed at
helping the community.
We would also be delighted to send copies of
our recent reports on Six Lessons for Building
SuperTeams and “The Real Cost of Losing Staff and
How to Keep your Best Talent.”
Should you be looking for reports to help in your
sector, again please do get in touch.
YOUR VIEWS
This is an extremely exciting time for the Harrington
Starr brand and we are delighted to be launching
a series of new initiatives in the second half of the
year. Whilst all of these changes have been driven
by the voice of our customers, we are constantly
looking to refine and improve the value added
services that we provide on top of our recruitment
delivery. We believe in being of service through
introductions, business consultancy, insight and
events. If you have ideas on what we can do to help,
we’d love to hear from you. Please contact Toby
Babb on 0203 587 7007.
G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
WWW.HARRINGTONSTARR.COM
Company Registration Number: 7246003
Company Headquarters:
99 Waterloo Road, London, SE1 8UL
Company Telephone Number: 0203 587 7007
Company Email: info@harringtonstarr.com
Company Registered Address: Cornerstone House,
9 Lord Chancellor Walk, Kingston Upon Thames,
Surrey, KT2 7HG.
Six lessons
for building
super teams
6
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N
Harrington Starr: David, why have
Harrington Starr chosen Germany as the
first international destination?
David: Over the past few years at Harrington Starr
we have experienced a continued and increasing
demand from our clients to provide them with
solutions for their international operations. With
the core of our Financial Services and Commodity
customers outside of the UK based across Germany,
Switzerland, Austria and Holland; Germany was
the logical choice giving us access to each of
these locations. I am with easy access of to the
international Financial and Commodity Trading
hubs in Frankfurt, Zurich, Zug, Munich and with a
day or two’s notice I can be in Geneva quite easily.
Harrington Starr: Why have you chosen
now to take this step?
David: It has always been part of Harrington Starr’s
mandate to open offices globally, but to be honest
this has happened a little quicker than everyone
expected. The reason for it is that my partner who
is German was offered a fantastic opportunity to
relocate and join a company based here in Germany
and it was something that she couldn’t turn down.
When I spoke to Toby, James, Nadia and Alex and
explained my situation they immediately saw this as
an opportunity to build and move forward.
INTERVIEW WITH
David Peglar
In Harrington Starr’s
Stuttgart Office
July saw Harrington Starr launch our first international office
in Germany. Here we talk to David Peglar on the opportunities
in the DACH’s market and settling into his new surroundings.
Harrington Starr: How
would you describe the
Recruitment Market in the
European and DACH’s region?
David: Overall within the
Financial Service and Commodity
Technology space I think that
it is a very exciting time. We
are continuing to see a great
deal of demand for technology
specialists from the traditional
commodity trading and energy
organizations as well as the
increased demand from non-
traditional trading businesses
who are looking to invest in
this technology. Vendors and
Consultancies alike are also
seeking the best talent across
Europe and to repeat what I
have said it is extremely
important for us to be close
to our customer and candidates
alike to understand their
needs and pain points.
••
“Overall
withinthe
Financial
Serviceand
Commodity
Technology
spaceIthink
thatitisa
very
exciting
time.”
••
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Harrington Starr: What do you see as the main opportunities in
the market today?
David: I think Germany and the DACH’s region has yet to fully
embrace social media and active sourcing as integral part of their
day-to-day recruitment. I also feel that the level of service in the
recruitment sector is not up to a level matching other industries here,
so for me the opportunity is replicate the things that we already do
on a daily basis in London and taking those values and approaches
into the market over here. Harrington Starr was founded with a view to
engage with clients and candidates with 6 core values that are central
to providing the best customer service. I think that there is a huge
opportunity to offer this same service across Europe and although
it may be small steps at first, I have no doubt that we will have great
success in the future.
Harrington Starr: What defines the critical success factors for
you when recruiting in the European market?
David: I believe that success in the DACH’s market is defined by being
able to understand and satisfy local market needs first, and then being
able to leverage these internationally. In many cases we are already
leveraging our relationships with our customer base in the UK who
have operations over here, but by being closer to our clients I will be
able to ensure that we can better understand their needs and become
a trusted advisor and partner.
Harrington Starr: What is your take on the future of recruiting in
Germany and the DACH’s region?
David: I think that as a whole recruiters have some catching up to do
in regards to using professional networks and immersing themselves
in international markets; couple that with the Financial Services and
Commodities technology market’s need on attracting very skilled
resources, the market may struggle to satisfy its recruiting needs.
However I feel that there is significant potential for success for
recruiters that are willing and able to rise above the current status quo.
I feel that with Harrington Starr’s innovative recruiting campaigns and
strategies, our use of the latest technology such as our market leading
mobile app and our desire to provide outstanding customer service
as well as integrating better and more effectively with our customers’
needs that we have a fantastic chance of being a great success.
Harrington Starr: Keep up the good news David. We look
forward to seeing the European team grow rapidly in the
coming months.
Hs
4 2
G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
o Summarise, it has been another
great month for professionals and
companies in financial services and
commodities technology. There has
been a robust performance from the
markets and confidence has returned in making
investments in technology to bring trading
advantage.
The increasing levels of activity in M&A,
investments, partnerships and projects have led
to outstanding career opportunities being created.
Once again, the market has switched to becoming
candidate led with those with specialist skill sets
collecting offers at will. Whilst not fully back to pre
2008 levels, there are increasingly positive noises
being made throughout the employment sector.
A summary of the main trends from the overview
SUMMARY
The Commodities space is
thriving. Vendor technology is
improving by the day and the
clamour for innovation in the
trading systems has led to heavy
investment in tech throughout
the world. Perhaps the most
truly global sector that there is,
demand for Oil & Gas is booming,
fracking keeps the sector in the
press and trading opportunities
are in abundance.
There are clear winners in the
technology space with Linux very
much becoming the O/S of choice
in financial institutions. Testing
has resurged as user’s demand
increasing perfection in usability
and Python is re-emerging rapidly
as a language.
We leave this commentary excited
about getting our teeth into
August and positive about the
opportunities that the market
is presenting for technology
professionals and companies
alike. We hope that the month
proves extremely successful for
you and please do not hesitate to
get in touch should Harrington
Starr be able to be of service. See
you next month.
T
Hs
4 3
G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
HARRINGTON
STARR
About
Harrington Starr is a recruitment
business based solely around the
needs of the customer. Global
specialists in Financial Services
and Commodities Technology
recruitment, Harrington Starr offer
permanent, retained, interim,
and contract solutions to over
400 of the leading companies in
the world and many thousands
of the globes most talented
industry professionals. Covering
Investment Banks, Hedge Funds,
Prop Trading Houses, Exchanges,
MTFs, Market Makers, Brokerages,
Trading Companies, Vendors and
Consultancies, the company
is ideally suited to connect
world class talent with world
class opportunity.
We strongly believe in authentic
networking and being of service.
With this in mind, our offer
extends well beyond traditional
contingency recruitment.
White papers, commentaries,
market information, networking
introductions, consulting, video,
content and a series of events
all combine as complimentary
services aimed at delivering
true partnership in deed as
well as word.
The foundation of the business is,
however, excellent delivery with
old fashioned values of manners
and respect. We believe in
excellence through understanding
– both the sector itself but also
the real needs of our clients and
candidates. We love this industry
and would be delighted to discuss
the Harrington Starr Mystique
and how we can help you in
more detail.
4 4
G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
WWW.HARRINGTONSTARR.COM
DESIGNEDBYDANIELBIDDULPH~DAN.BIDDULPH@ME.COM
@harringtonstarr
(search Harrington Starr)
99 WATERLOO ROAD
LONDON
SE1 8RT
T: +0044 203 587 7007
E: INFO@HARRINGTONSTARR.COM
HARRINGTON
STARR
LIMITED
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HS Insight - August 2013

  • 1. WWW.HARRINGTONSTARR.COM Company Registration Number: 7246003 Company Headquarters: 99 Waterloo Road, London, SE1 8UL Company Telephone Number: 0203 587 7007 Company Email: info@harringtonstarr.com Company Registered Address: Cornerstone House, 9 Lord Chancellor Walk, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey, KT2 7HG. Harrington Starr’s Monthly Market Commentary On The Financial Services And Commodities Technology Sector HS INSIGHT AUGUST 2013 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T
  • 2. 0 2 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T to HS Insight, August 2013. This copy looks at the major trends in salaries, business and technology, and investigates the hottest skills in the global financial services and commodities technology sector. As we recognise that you are busy, you can now also watch a ten minute highlight presentation of this commentary on our youtube channel. This month we are delighted to have a sixty second interview with Eddie George, Founder of London New Finance. Eddie brings us a fascinating look at the booming FinTech start up scene and talks us through his remarkable rise to the summit of the networking community. We welcome bloggers and companies looking to showcase their business to our 30,000 strong readership of FinTech professionals and please get in touch should you wish to explore our complimentary opportunities to contribute to the magazine. Harrington Starr is a business focussed on insight, networking, events, business consultancy, introductions and recruitment. Focussed solely on the financial services and commodities technology space, we are passionate about insight and news in the sector and are delighted to present our headlines to the FS and Commodities Community. We hope that you enjoy the read. An overview of the Financial Services, Commodities & Insurance Technology Markets August2013 Market Commentary HARRINGTON STARR Welcome Market Commentary HARRINGTON STARR Visit the Harrington Starr You Tube channel to tune in.
  • 3. G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T 0 3 The business covers twelve technology verticals including development, buy and sell side trading systems, sales, product & marketing, Low latency, FIX, Connectivity & market data, senior & executive hires, trade, operations & systems support, risk & compliance, logistics and supply chain, testing & quality assurance, big data, databases & business intelligence, quantitative and algo trading and commodities IT. With over 400 of the World’s leading Investment Banks, Asset Managers, Stock Exchanges, Brokerages, Hedge Funds, Prop Trading firms, Trading Houses, Vendors and Consultancies working with the company over five different continents and twenty six countries, Harrington Starr would be delighted to partner with your business. For copies of our 2013 contract rate survey, 2013 permanent salary survey or our series of white papers, please get in touch on 0203 587 7007.
  • 4. 0 4 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T Market Overview Sixty Second Interview with Eddie George, CEO NewFinance MARKET NEWS Financial Technology Commodities Technology SALARY OVERVIEW Financial Technology Commodities Technology HIGH DEMAND SKILLS Financial Technology Commodities Technology BUSINESS TRENDING Financial Technology Commodities Technology TECHNOLOGY TRENDING Financial Technology Commodities Technology Tips for Companies Looking to Hire Tips for Candidates Looking for Work Announcements Interview With David Peglar Summary 05 08 10 13 15 17 18 20 22 24 25 27 28 30 34 40 42 TABLE OF CONTENTS
  • 5. 0 5 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T brought with it a noticeable surge in employer confidence in the Financial Services and Commodities Technology sector. As stated in HS Insight for the last few months, the talk has been of improving conditions, project sign offs and headcount drives. This certainly seemed to come to fruition in July with record business levels recorded at Harrington Starr. As has often been said, the recruitment sector serves as a strong barometer for economic confidence and, in such case, the markets have returned to rude health. The Harrington Starr Contractor Rate Survey was released this month and again, the results showed positive trending. Covering 538 separate rate bands in financial services and commodities technology we recorded an industry average of £461 a day for professionals in the space. The banks remained at the peak with that average falling at £490 a day. The recordings fell per sector as follows: •• Investment Banking - £490 Commodities Trading - £486 Asset Management - £473 Exchange, Brokerage, MTF - £464 Vendor - £384 •• MARKET OVERVIEW •• “The recruitment sector serves as a strong barometer for economic confidence.” •• THE JULY HEAT WAVE A market overview from Harrington Starr’s Managing Director Toby Babb
  • 6. 0 6 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T The vendors are still reluctant to invest in contract talent and the investment banks are still prepared to spend at the highest level. Interestingly, the hottest skills have seen rises in rates and a scramble for talent. Here are our twelve most in demand technologies in FS and Commodities Technology contracting: •• Web development (ASP) £450-600 Java/C++ £350-600 FPGA £350–550 Risk Management and Systems Implementation £450-700 Infrastructure Specialists £325-425 FIX Messaging Specialists £450-600 Automated Trade Support £275-400 Asset Management Business Analysts £375-575 Commodities Trading Software Project Managers £400 – 750 Commodities Trading Developers £400-600 Commodities Apps Support with Business Knowledge £300-525 •• These skills have boomed in the first half of last year and seen in creases in rates throughout all sectors. We expect to see more of the same for experienced professionals in the sector through the remainder of 2013. There were a number of interesting press releases throughout July as well in a period of furious activity in the sector. We saw the London Stock Exchange acquire Turquoise Derivatives. S&P Capital IQ formed a strategic agreement with Tullett Prebon Information, Fidessa saw developments in their Derivatives division, Goldman Sachs are set to spin off REDI Tech Group, TS Associates released Correlix 5.2 Flow Modelling Solution and there was movement for the Aquis Exchange. Whilst this is a highly innovative sector, there has been high activity in product releases, partnerships, business wins and M&A. All signs of improving confidence in Financial Services. The impact that this has had on staffing has been noticeable with the press reporting that PWC’s recent report suggested that the return of banking confidence is likely to create 250,000 jobs in the Capital. With increasing competition between companies to secure the best talent, particularly in the more niche tech skill sets, it is becoming more and more important that companies are looking at their capability planning and start to pipeline and talent pool relevant skill sets. Attraction strategies have to be absolutely clear with a compelling proposition. As mentioned with past commentaries, the landscape has changed. No longer are we simply looking to compete with other banks, the Googles, Facebooks & Shazams of this world are starting to really challenge for the very best in tech.
  • 7. G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T 0 7 There was also an interesting article from eFinancial heralding the 15 jobs in banking that will be big to 2020 and beyond. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the line up was dominated by Risk and, as will be revealed in the pages that follow, roles that combine Risk and Technology are both in high demand and highly sought after. Interestingly, the list also included Oil &Gas, M&A specialists and those in the Wealth Management sector. Those who have read the last year of HS Insight will be well aware of the fact that these are areas we have been talking about for some time and, in technology, people who can link these business areas and translate between the front office and tech teams are in very high demand. The list also contained Python developers. The resurgence of the language in banking tech has been prominent and there has been a swell in demand in recent weeks. The prestigious Waters Rankings was also released in July with the cream of the FinTech community battling for recognition in New York. It was fantastic to see some new names on the podium and we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the winners and particularly the numerous Harrington Starr clients that appeared on the podium. What was clear from the awards is that innovation is continuing apace and the war for efficiency and advantage through technology is very much in action. In the month that Harrington Starr sponsored the “Finance in the Cloud” event at the Cass Business School, we should focus as well on the developments in that space. Institutional-investor demand suggested that market data vendors are seeing more opportunity than ever in the Cloud with both this and Shared Services very much on the rise. The adoption of Cloud tech in FinTech is rapidly evolving and AIB’s COO Anne Boden recently quoted that the Bank’s private cloud has meant a “tenfold reduction in the number of Oracle databases” and offered significantly more development flexibility and technological ability. With increasing confidence around the security of Cloud systems to match the ever increasing advantages around flexibility, cost and technology, this will dominate the headlines for many months to come. This presents opportunity in a market that has not yet fully adopted making it an area ripe for disruption. Over at our friends at Low-Latency.com, an excellent article by Pete Harris added to the debate around Social, another consistent area of discussion in FinTech. Quoting OneFinancialData’s report, a massive 85% of respondents agreed that social media offered faster dissemination and analysis for breaking events than traditional media. Interestingly, the same report noted that only 18.2% of the firms polled were actually using Social Media in their trading and investment strategy. Whilst there are certainly risks involved, that 81.8% will grow aggressively in the coming years and offers another incredible opportunity for innovators in the space to win business and forge trading advantages. In the pages that follow you will read a positive report of technical evangelism, development & advancement of technology and a rapidly recovering global market. Many companies are managing to take advantage of these opportunities yet some continue to lag. As stated above, there are so many openings waiting and yearning for the next big advancement. The next six months will see rises in Mobile, Cloud, HFT, Data and Social. We would love to talk to you about who we can introduce you to to help ensure that these opportunities are capitalised upon. Please get in touch to discuss and we wish you another successful month. “The war for efficiency and advantage through technology is very much in action.”
  • 8. 0 8 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T SECOND INTERVIEW60 Eddie George ~ CEO NewFinance Harrington Starr: Hi Eddie, so first please tell us a little about yourself? Eddie George: Hi, well I like to think of myself as a ‘grown up’ technologist, I have a Computer Science degree and also an MBA and I’m most interested in how technology can deliver real practical value rather than just deliver technology for technology’s sake, I like to think I can blend tech expertise with good business sense. I’ve worked in the City for over 25 years with the last 5 in the new tech scene, and it’s been really exciting and fun as the scene has expanded so rapidly Harrington Starr: How did you come to start NewFinance? Eddie George: I started NewFinance back in July 2011 as a small group that would meet for a drink once a month to discuss the latest innovations in Financial Technology simply because nobody else was running anything similar. I imagined that perhaps a dozen people would like to join me for a drink, but as it turns out after a couple of years 1500 and counting would like to. We’ve firmed up and professionalised since then and we’re now thought-leadership driven producing research and guides, events, media content and much more. Harrington Starr: What’s the ultimate aim of NewFinance? Eddie George: Put simply, to bring positive transformation to the global financial services industry using technology, much like Amazon has done for retail or Expedia for travel. Those industries left the station years ago and have made great strides in improving the market, it’s now Finance’s turn and we want to facilitate that with technology. Everyone complains about the current system but technology is the enabler to bring real change and the pace of advance is so rapid that everything we need today to make the changes is already available; it’s just a case of applying it and managing the transformation. •• “NewFinance is a Platform for Financial Innovation through Technology.” •• Eddie George Founder and CEO of NewFinance, the UK’s largest Financial Technology Innovation Network
  • 9. 0 9 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T Harrington Starr: What kind of people join the group? Eddie George: We have a core of FinTech (Financial Technology) Entrepreneurs who are building new companies to innovate in the space and then a wide range of other Members providing support, typically Investors at all levels, Service providers such as Solicitors, Accountants etc… and also Technologists, Academics, Students, Government, Finance Professionals, Journalists and so on, pretty much anyone interested in the core theme of Financial Innovation. I like to think of the Entrepreneurs as being on the pitch scoring goals and everyone else providing support in one way or another whether it’s capital, services, knowledge or expertise. Harrington Starr: NewFinance has expanded rapidly this year, what’s next for you and the group? Eddie George: Yes, our timing was spot on, but mostly by luck not design I should say, this is one of those projects that has just gone really smoothly. The next steps are to expand to the US and to other countries and to enhance our existing services, including the launch of a new online platform to carry more content and deliver tailored services to our Members. Year 3 is going to be pretty busy, we’re planning to expand to New York in November and to the Bay Area and other clusters next year. Watch this space. Harrington Starr: OK, and finally what advice would you give to a budding FinTech Entrepreneur thinking of starting a new company to innovate in financial services? Eddie George: London is a key global cluster alongside New York and the Bay Area, and everything you need is here, you just need to make the right connections to find it. The most common mistake that I see is too much focus on the tech and not enough on the marketing, so someone in your start-up needs to be 100% focused on looking outside your company and building the right relationships and bringing in all the resources you need, many of which are free. Make sure you’re market driven and not tech driven, if you build it, they will not come! Harrington Starr: Eddie, thanks very much for talking with us and we wish you the very best of luck with NewFinance especially the international expansion. •• “The next steps are to expand to the US and to other countries and to enhance our existing services.” •• Eddie George Founder and CEO of NewFinance Hs
  • 10. 1 0 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T quis Exchange has struck up some exciting partnerships over the past month, most notably with BT Radianz that will allow its members to access its trading platform through the BT Radianz cloud. The BT Radianz cloud is currently the largest secured network used across the financial services community and with the additional clearing capabilities means the full trade lifecycle (STP) can occur without disruption. In addition to the BT Radianz partnership, Aquis have enhanced their offering by selecting Tradeview from Datacom for their market data feed monitoring and Interxion to host a second co-located facility in London, which will give users more latency options and Aquis more capacity and resiliency. Bite size news from the financial services and commodities technology markets. MARKET NEWS FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY The collaboration with Interxion, specialists in the provision of low latency data centre solutions to some of the world’s leading financial institutions, is a strategic move to improve latency options for their users. The collaboration between the two companies is met with interest across the industry and both parties are excited with their relationship moving forward. Interactive Data announced the integration of EdgeBook Depth in July. This is a product providing full depth of book information developed by Direct Edge, the third largest stock exchange in the United States. A
  • 11. 1 1 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T There has been an increasing trend of start-up businesses that are beginning to move into the UK market having been a success in the US. These companies to watch out for are centred within the P2P lending and payments space, where they have come up with innovative products, for which they also see a gap within the UK market. Juniper Networks’ CEO Kevin Johnson is set to retire as soon as a replacement is found. It is reported that whilst there are concerns about the future of Juniper in terms of their long- term strategy, Johnson reports that his departing has nothing to do with the company’s performance. Cisco, however, is doing very well as they agree to buy Sourcefire in an approximate $2.7 billion deal. CEO John Chambers plans to expand on and hopefully dominate the cybersecurity market space in order to ward off smaller competition such as Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet. It is expected that the purchase of Sourcefire and access to their intrusion-detection products may just help Cisco to win even more business from the corporate and government customers. •• “Social Media is once again making a comeback in the Trading world” •• Social Media is once again making a comeback in the Trading world as companies look to take advantage of what many see as an untapped resource. This has been tried before with Derwent Capital (later DCM Capital), who became known as the first Twitter Hedge Fund and then subsequently developed a trading platform that heavily relied on social media to predict trends. However the hedge fund was closed and the trading platform was auctioned off so it seemed that social media would always struggle to take over. This, combined with the flash crash earlier this year that was caused by a hacked twitter account, has given social media a bad name. However it has seemed to be making a comeback this month with OneMarketData producing a survey studying the usage of social media on Wall Street. The response so far appears to be that the benefits can be seen but there are inherent risks with using data that many see as unreliable. The battle is on for the Start Up Capital of Britain. Start Ups, particularly in the FinTech space, are continuing to appear at a huge rate of knots and Edinburgh has emerged as a possible City to rival the emergence of London as the Start Up Capital of Europe. A number of universities in the area are backing start ups financially and really giving them the opportunity to compete on a global scale. It’s great to see the battle between two British Cities and good luck to both of them in the battle for supremacy! Apple’s profits have been proven to be a lot higher than estimated. Apple sold over 30 million iPhones for the June quarter compared to 26 million at the same period last year. This shows clearly that customer’s faith in the brand as well as technology, in general, is growing strong. Britain currently has the most high-paid bankers in Europe, according to the European Banking Authority. Studies show that over 2300 bankers currently earn a million pounds or more compared with 739 in the rest of the EU. An interesting article was also released this month about Cloud technology rapidly gaining speed in the Financial services: Banks are quickly starting to realise that they can only increase their competitiveness by getting more applications hosted for them. This has already encouraged technology providers to be more creative and focused on delivering increasingly complex solutions. The future of the Cloud is bright.
  • 12. 1 2 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T The Buy-side community has seen a common trend for all concerned with Compliance. With the implications of the new rules and regulations around the Dodd-Frank reform buy-side companies have paid a real focus on implementing this regulation with the best compliance staff their money can buy. Year to date has seen the buy- side community do very well in financial trading and Technology and have invested this back into the business to expand and grow. Now as the deadline approaches with Dodd Frank regulation we are now seeing these firms build the compliance teams to make sure they are protected within the regulation. NYSE Euronext beat rivals London Stock Exchange and Markit to take control and manage Libor. Libor is currently looked after by London’s British Bankers Association however lobbyists sought to hand control to another group to restore confidence to Libor’s reputation. Meanwhile, IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) is still awaiting final approval from regulators for their purchase of NYSE Exchange. Accenture and Broadridge have launched a new post-trade solution which will reduce cost per-trade by leveraging trade volumes, and will see Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Bank confirmed as their first customer. The initial deal will also see a number of Societe Generale staff transfer over to Accenture in outsource deal. Bloomberg Tradebook, the global agency broker arm of Bloomberg LP, which serves buy-side and sell-side firms with trading solutions for global equities, futures, options and foreign exchange (FX) trading, has become self-clearing after selecting Broadridge Financial Solutions to provide technological support for back- office operations and global trading, this will benefit their clients with economies of scale and compliant processes. Hs
  • 13. 1 3 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T Bite size news from the financial services and commodities technology markets. MARKET NEWS COMMODITIES TECHNOLOGY T here have been numerous rumours of firms talking to each other about possible buyouts in recent weeks and we expect to see some major announcements in the vendor technology space within E/CTRM in the months ahead. Utilities firms continue to be the biggest spenders with Centrica announcing only yesterday of their purchase of a business to business gas supplier in North America for £478m. We expect to see continued and similar investments to be made for several years to come. Ion Trading have completed the takeover of TriplePoint, signalling firstly the highlight of their appeal within the market in the last 12-18 months, and secondly the intent of TriplePoint to become a global force within the ETRM and Supply chain piece. WTI Crude oil stockpiles have started to increase however the trade of crude oil remains relatively stable. SunGard are moving into a position of power with Aligne is becoming a more desirable product. SAP have started to move into the ETRM space being months away from having a completed solution themselves. Statoil (one of Europe’s largest energy trading companies) has been hurt by lower gas and oil prices. This means they are charging a lower rate in order to be economically competitive. However, costs are on the rise, hence for this month and the foreseeable short term, profit margins are dramatically tightened. On a more positive note, Citigroup has announced that recovery has been observed in this half of the year, arguably due to new leadership in Mike Corbat and his new tactics in commodities trading. Citigroup will soon again be one of the most powerful commodity trading investment banks in the world. Battersea Power Station in London is to be renovated into apartments and shops. The building has been bought by a consortium of Malaysian companies, who plan to build hundreds of apartments and offices, shops and even a theatre. The power station was decommissioned over 30 years ago in 1983, however it still remains a monument for British Energy. •• “Citigroup has announced that recovery has been observed in this half of the year.” ••
  • 14. 1 4 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T With respect to Supply Chain software many professionals in the consumer goods industry are stating that cloud-based solutions are future of food supply chains. The adoption of Cloud-based solutions in the food and beverage market is seen as cost-effective, quick and easy to deploy. Furthermore cloud based solutions can be accepted by companies of all sizes. Availability of these solutions will remove some of the current technology barriers to exchanging demand and compliance information with suppliers and customers, leveling the playing field with larger competitors and driving innovation. Finally this type of cloud based solutions offers supply chain visibility and control that will be extended throughout the network and hence reduce costs for the consumer. Metal commodity markets have fallen in recent months. As a result of this China has slightly loosened export restrictions. Sugar jumped almost 3 per cent to a four-week high as uncertainty about the impact on output from bad weather in Brazil. JP Morgan are to leave the physical commodities trading market, but will remain in their traditional financial commodities trading business. It is expected that they will look to sell off or partner their vast global trading team and subsidiaries. JP Morgan who at their peak were once regarded as the biggest trader on Wall street made the announcement following further scrutiny from the US Federal Reserve on Wall Street’s commodity trading operation and activities. Hs In other news relating to JP Morgan, they have agreed to pay $410 million to settle charges with the US Energy regulator. This is the second largest charge in FERC history and comes after the bank was claimed to have used 5 manipulative bidding strategies in the US power markets between 2010 and 2011. European demand for oil is on the rise for the first time in two years in a sign of increased economic activity across the continent. Rio Tinto is pushing ahead with plans to boost iron ore output over the next 18 months, as it counts on demand from Chinese steel mills slowing down. Centrica has continued its expansion in North America with a £30m deal for Texas-based Bounce Energy. Dubai and Abu Dhabi will merge their aluminium smelters after years of negotiations to create a United Arab Emirates industrial champion valued at $15bn including net debt There are strong indications that the FX market will move towards an equities style market. This will allow buy-side to gain ground on the investment banks and create a whole new layer to the FX trading landscape. The ability for the buy side to trade between each other will increase competition and alter the traditional sell-side dominated FX market. This has come about due to the pressure buy- side firms are under to find new revenue streams resulting in them diversifying their investment strategies. This will lead a new wave of technical innovation to support it. The fallout for BP’s 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill continues to have a major effect on their annual results. From the original fund of $20 billion set aside for compensation there is a reported 300 million remaining and with claims expected to continue into 2014 with a continued increase of individual claims this remaining figure would seem significantly lower than what is required. The ongoing affect for BP is a further reported decrease in profits. •• There are strong indications that the FX market will move towards an equities style market. ••
  • 15. 1 5 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T his month we have seen a stark rise in salaries on offer in some of the financial software vendors. Typically companies that people had chosen to join for the opportunity to learn a product and become an expert in their field are now recognising that the market is highly competitive. This competition is rising amongst candidates with financial experience as well as those without. As such the vendor world is raising its salary expectation to rival other financial institutions to ensure they attract the best staff. We have seen hints of a standoff between companies and candidates over the last couple of months, with candidates looking for an increased salary bump to compensate for perceived risk of moving whilst companies are refusing to pay over the odds for candidates compared to their current staff. Mostly this has led to compromise between the two parties but has also seen candidates miss out on an excellent move in their career for a few thousand pounds versus significant gains in their future earnings. Companies have also been using a signing on fee in order attract candidates whilst also preserving parity in base salaries across the business. Salary fluctuations and trends in financial services and commodities technology. SALARY OVERVIEW FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY T
  • 16. 1 6 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T Permanent salaries have remained steady – and rather generous for graduates. We are seeing some entry level graduate jobs paying as much as £35,000 basic salary as companies wish to snap up the brightest talent and keep them in the company to develop them into tomorrow’s leaders. The market is back and booming with talent. People are interested in hearing about new positions that can elevate their career to the next level. If you are looking for individuals with a mixture of skills and a client facing ability these candidates are becoming priceless as businesses continue to see the benefits to this personality and technical combination. Smaller end user firms are fighting the temptation to provide higher salaries by continuing to manage their books by committing to lower salaries but higher performance related bonuses. On the vendor and consultancy side, salaries have steadied recently for non-urgent hires. In the boom of vendor start- ups, salaries are often offset by the opportunity to work in a growing business and share business autonomy, to caveat this there have also been numerous occasions where these start-ups have had to compete with the market to get the right candidate for the company that also shares the long term values so a better long term investment. The market for QA Engineers and Test Managers has seen an increase in Rate for 2013. Clients have paid a real focus on hiring the top talent in the Quality Engineering and Testing space. This year we have seen an increase of between 10% - 12% for Contract rates for Testers which is great news. The reason for this is that during the first 6 months of the year many clients were busy building the Development teams bringing in C++, Java and .NET Programmers. Now those requirements are filled they want to complete the team with Senior Testers and QA Engineers with the same calibre of the development team. This has pushed the rate upwards as the client requirement is that Testers and QA engineers must be able to understand the business as well as improve performance or test for bugs. No longer will the run of the mill do. Risk, Regulations and Compliance projects are continuing the same trends as last month. The main onus are IT projects that are being driven by regulation including EMIR, Dodd-Frank, Basel III, MiFID. There are so many regulatory changes that Financial Services institutions are facing challenges in multiple areas of their businesses. This has led to an increase in demand at a senior level for professionals who are able to manage and drive IT strategy on a global scale, across multiple work streams and have experience delivering large scale projects. The Contract market sees requirements and opportunities being signed off, however rates remain in line with H1 levels due to the overwhelming supply of existing contractors in the job queues. As the resource pool depletes which we expect towards the end of Q3, rates may begin to rise in favour of the contractors. •• “The market is back and booming with talent.” •• Hs CONTRACT
  • 17. 1 7 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T alaries have remained stable for the most part, however we have seen a few consultancies paying slightly over the industry standard to secure candidates for projects due to start. We are finding that the demand for commodity contractors waning, however organisations are still willing to pay the money for good contractors to come in and do the job. Candidates with multiple systems knowledge are becoming more appealing to bigger corporations and are willing to pay slightly more for these candidates over their single system knowledge counterparts. We have found an increasing demand for technical skills and business knowledge learnt from that perspective rather than from a strictly trading or business angle. There has been a slight increase in contract rate in the supply chain sector, this is arguably to due to the lack of good contractor’s available and the fact that supply chain software implementation experience in commodities is rare. SALARY OVERVIEW COMMODITIES TECHNOLOGY Salary fluctuations and trends in financial services and commodities technology. S Many companies in the commodities industry, however, prefer to employ supply chain software vendors to come and implement the solution and will only have a few perm employees to maintain the system. WHEN LOOKING AT SOME OF THE KEY GROWTH AND DEMAND AREAS SPECIFIC TO THE ENERGY AND COMMODITIES MARKETS WE HAVE IDENTIFIED THAT THE FOLLOWING POSITIONS ARE OF INCREASING DEMAND: ■ Sales and Technical sales Professionals who are experienced in within the E/CTRM or other energy risk systems are in continued demand. We are seeing this on a global basis where salaries depending on experience range between £70,000 to £100,000 and bonus. ■ Project Management skills particularly those with experience of managing the delivery of enterprise level solutions are especially sought after. Those with experience in the energy markets can demand a salary of £75,000 to £90,000 plus package. Hs
  • 18. 1 8 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T inux has emerged as the most in demand operating system in demand by employers outshining the previously dominant Windows. This could be down to Linux being generally considered more secure than Windows albeit an open source system which many said would never be as secure as a proprietary one. The importance of infrastructure design for High Performance Computing is becoming more apparent. High frequency low latency trading environments depend on lean power generation methods and the infrastructure supporting these environments has to be bespoke and designed to specific operational environments. Hands on technical people with the ability to talk to the business are becoming more and more in demand. The market has been shifting to support the growth of specialist products that are supplied to the end user meaning there are fewer large rooms with hundreds of pure coders. Communication and interaction within the team attributes to efficient solutions so having a team of hybrid professionals; skilled in both techy and interpersonal skills may effectively save you time and money. The skill sets most in demand in financial services and commodities technology. HIGH DEMAND SKILLS FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY L
  • 19. 1 9 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T Due to the epoch of companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon, there has been a spark in the market for the more innovative and technically diverse individuals who see programming as more of a hobby than a day to day job. This will become a growing trend in the market as financial companies seek to make their environments more ‘tech’ friendly and to encourage developers and testers to join them as a business. With regards to infrastructure, Linux skills are more in demand and more and more so chosen over Windows technology in the FS space. Linux infrastructure engineers/system administrators are very much preferred to candidates with only Windows exposure. This may simply be down to more organisations having more of a Linux focus as it has always been debatable that Linux does what Windows can’t and won’t. Therefore, as more organisations use Linux as choice of infrastructure, the skillset is ever growing in demand. From a development point of view, this month has not been about a specific skill but has been about Open Source development, in particular having a presence on GitHub. GitHub is an Open source platform that allows developers to showcase their own work and develop on other people’s projects. This experience has been in extremely high demand this month due to the fact that companies are looking for a better way of telling who are the best programmers and this offers them an insight into someone’s passion. The stars of this month in terms of demand are testers, but more particularly, Automation testers. Whether it is QTP, Selenium or Cucumber, Automation skills are in demand. ISEB/ITQSB certifications are, however, becoming a must in the Testing area and Financial companies seem to use them more and more as a criteria when selecting candidates. Testing Analyst and Test Managers within HFT and Algo Trading have seen a trend for the first time this year. As the ever increasing market for HFT and Algo continues to grow the real growing pains are that these systems run smoothly and bug free. With a high order rate the impact of software bugs can be disastrous to the trading book and so we have seen an increase in Test Analyst coming into the market for various Market Makers and Prop trading firms. What has been really interesting in the mix of both Manuel and Automated Test experience that is required by such firms. We predict a healthy market for the second half of 2013 for Tester and Test Managers that have experience in HFT and Low latency applications. Experience testers with BDD and TDD are fast tracking their careers as this shows an in depth knowledge of Testing. We’ve mentioned this before but right now it is so critical to the financial services industry that it deserves to be mentioned again. Knowledge of regulations, liquidity, risk and compliance is key for investment banks, brokerages and asset management companies. Professionals who can have equally strong knowledge of both regulation and IT and can bridge the gap between Risk, Compliance, IT and Operations are in high demand. Candidates with strong business analysis skills around the technical and functional elements of electronic trading are a rare breed. Clients are keen to identify Business Analysts with industry qualifications and certifications as they look to improve existing processes in light of the increasing regulatory landscape. Specialist Business Analysts who can couple the strong process side with in-depth asset class knowledge remain very marketable. CONTRACT•• “Analysts who can couple the strong process side with in-depth asset class knowledge remain very marketable.” •• Hs
  • 20. 2 0 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T odd Franks is still a skill set required in most trading organisations as they work to bring themselves in line with the new regulations. Candidates with Triple Point’s CXL Software knowledge are in high demand. This is to help deliver the number of projects Triple Point secured last year. We’re still seeing a growing need for candidates with strong business knowledge around soft commodities and linking this with technology. Trading Technology Software Salesman are still wanted by many Software Vendors. This is due to the demand for new applications currently in the market place. A new trend amongst employers in FST is to opt for candidate who can combine technical and business expertise into a single role. There was a time when separate business and technical experts would partner to deliver projects. With many companies under pressure to run lean operations, those candidates with strong business and technical skills are winning the race to the best jobs. The borders between ‘traditional’ business analyst and technical consultant roles, for example, have become blurred. The challenge now is to find candidates that are strong in both areas as client expectations of what they consider a strong business and technical candidate are rising. Candidates who have diversified their skills to include both business and technical expertise are reaping the benefits of their shrewd career moves and are a commodity in the current job market. HIGH DEMAND SKILLS COMMODITIES TECHNOLOGY The skill sets most in demand in financial services and commodities technology. D There has been an increase in demand for Endur Upgrade Business Analysts as a few projects have commenced throughout the industry. Business orientated Business Analysts are on the increase with organisations preferring this over IT focused individuals. One of the key skill sets in demand is the ability to act as a Business Analyst and act as an advisor on commodity/energy trading and risk management systems. This is highly sought after skill set in the consultancies, especially as many end users are looking to upgrade or change their E/CTRM system. However many E/CTRM consultants still enjoy technical configuration and hence don’t want to be an advisor.
  • 21. 2 1 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T Another technology in high demand is SAP Supply Chain Management software. SAP SCM solutions is being used in a variety of raw material and commodity companies as it is one of the more traditional supply chain solutions and has a great reputations for successful implementation. Supply Chain software architects are in high demand. These are consultants that are able to implement and redesign the supply chain solution on client site. This is a high demand skill set because companies now want a tailored solution and not just a simple plug and play system. However this does mean that supply chain vendors are having to invest more into training to make sure their consultants can meet clients expectations. Hs •• “Candidates who have diversified their skills to include both business and technical expertise are reaping the benefits of their shrewd career moves.” •• In the market the demand for CXL and Aligne is always increasing which is understandable due to the software vendors that produce them and their place in the market. Hiring managers are becoming more flexible in what system knowledge candidates have. Murex and their system are starting to move away from just the risk aspects and immerse themselves into the commodities arena. The energy and commodities market is continuing to trend in a very positive manner from a recruitment perspective. This is a view that we have continued to express since the start of 2013 and the industry has continued to hold this demand. One of the areas where we have experienced further demand for commodity and energy technologists is within the consultancy markets. As organisations seek to mitigate risk and non-traditional trading organisations seek to invest in new procurement solutions they are increasingly seeking professional advice to assist them. As already discussed commodity software sales professionals are in great demand with consultancies and Vendors seeking experienced sales and presales candidates. This is very much a global demand with needs across EMEA, the US and Asia.
  • 22. 2 2 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T arket trading conditions have stabilised across the board. Equities, after a drop last year are back into a volatile market. The FX market has been building out across the year as well as Derivatives products. As a result we have seen a rise in technology across all these market areas in terms of systems, application and functionality development. We are seeing a current trend where roles within financial services are opening up to people from outside finance if they have the right technical skill set, clear communication, attitude to learn and passion for the business. These types of opportunities were once ‘blue moon’ situations are becoming more common place. We are putting this down to time of year, the rise in technical talent, the new awareness that every business is unique and won’t necessarily have transferable skills from one asset to another and more importantly the new focus on longevity within a person. The major business developments and themes in FS and commodities technology. BUSINESS TRENDING FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY M The High Frequency Trading debate has been polarising opinions all year and this month has been no different. Whether it was been the proposed introductions of a tax on HFT Traders or claims that HFT doesn’t drive investors from the markets a whole range of opinions are available. What is certain is that this debate isn’t going anywhere and HFT Traders continue to be an easy target for anyone looking to take a pot shot at the Financial Industry. It remains to be seen whether there will be any constructive arguments on the issue or how long the debate will go on for. •• “We are seeing a current trend where roles within financial services are opening up to people from outside finance.” ••
  • 23. 2 3 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T The Start Up trend is continuing to go crazy. If you can aim an established business then you’ll almost be certainly be able to find a start-up who are aiming to do it better, faster and make it easier. This is dominated by FinTech companies and often they are stocked full of former Investment Banking or Hedge Fund big hitters who have decided to take on the established market leaders. The outcome of this will either be a number of people looking for new jobs if the Start Ups begin to struggle. The market is competitive for good talent, people are acting quickly when they identify candidates they like and being flexible on consolidating processes if candidates are in demand. This month has been hiring off the back of up-coming projects and this will continue into the next couple of months. Every month there are more and more specialist firms building the cutting edge technology for specific end user requirements. These businesses are made up of experienced individuals who bring market changing ideas together in companies that behave like a hub of innovation. As their main focus is to deliver this technology, they are able to react quicker to revolutionary new ideas and this then in turn benefits the end user environments keeping ahead of the market. The business of Exchanges has been increasingly busy during the last half of the year and the predication is this will continue for the rest of 2013. There is confidence in the UK and Global economy being reported by the media and Government which is having an impact. The appetite to make more money in the various Asset Classes across FST is keeping the Global exchanges busy. According to the WFE the European market in the month of May continued to serge in for the 4th consecutive month this year. June and July figures are due to be released. Cash markets have seen the bulk of the success where Derivatives contracts is running on a minus from last year’s figures. One of the implications of the new faced regulations banks are facing such as Basel III, the Dodd-Frank Act and EMIR is that Banks are becoming more efficient. Compliance has driven systematic process improvements and acts such as Basel III and Dodd-Frank are having the impact of driving Banks to improve their management of counterparty risk. Trends from across the Business sector suggest a positive move in the economy with industry experts such as Sir John Gieve and Charles Goodhart claiming the economy is about to reach “escape velocity”. This means we could soon see growth reaching 2.5% or more. This coupled with consumer confidence reaching a 3 year high positions the UK economy in an optimistic position. The wider spread confidence is yet to fully effect the financial services technology community but H1 2013 volumes are up 22% vs H2 2012 numbers with flow into European Equities turning positive for the year. •• “These businesses are made up of experienced individuals who bring market changing ideas together in companies that behave like a hub of innovation.” •• Hs
  • 24. 2 4 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T nvestment Banks have continued to shrink their activity in Energy Trading. Banks across Europe have streamlined their trading activity over the last 6 months and in some cases stopped trading certain products. A big emphasis is still being placed on the importance of LNG and LPG. Singapore and generally the Far East are establishing themselves as an Energy power house in the market. There has been a recent of discovery of fracking for shale gas has been the biggest talk around the energy market and the possible future it spells for fuel extraction in the future. However as a result many questions have been brought up surrounding the issue of fracking i.e. Is there a more cost efficient way of doing so? What are the repercussions of doing so, long term and short term? The emphasis of technical abilities is surpassing the need for business knowledge dependant on how they came across that knowledge. There have been some recent changes in the commodity trading market. Many investment banks and commodity brokerages are seeing investors flee from commodities. This is happening to such an extent that it has been a record amount of investors exiting the commodities investment industry in such a short space of time. Subsequently it is a range of investors that are exiting the market not just high net worth individuals. Whilst it has opened up an enormous political issue, Britain can extract enough shale gas to meet its needs for almost a decade. How this develops and the impact it has on Commodities Trading Technology in the UK will be watched with more than a keen eye. COMMODITIES TECHNOLOGY I BUSINESS TRENDINGThe major business developments and themes in FS and commodities technology. Saudi Arabia has boosted its crude oil production to a seven- month high as the world’s largest oil exporting country prepares to meet a surge in demand. Deutsche Bank is opening a vault in Singapore that can hold $9 billion of gold, as it hopes to tap rising demand for the precious metal in Asia. This in turn will enlarge their footprint in Asia. The effects of the global fracking boom continues to gain momentum. In the past week Saudi Prince Awaleed made a statement claiming that Fracking is going to crush the Saudi economy if nothing is done. He continued by saying that the region should diversify into other areas such as renewable energy. This might be slightly exaggerated statement, but it also highlights the potential effect that fracking could have on the global energy markets. We have seen a reduction in demand on raw materials and prices falling on the commodities market largely due to the reduction in demand from China, but also due to a fall of 3.3% in industrial output in Japan coinciding with a weaker than expected report on the Japanese economy. Hs
  • 25. 2 5 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T irtualisation is becoming more and more prominent and there are emerging virtual technologies to go alongside the leading competitors such as VMware. VMware is still the dominant force in that market and the demand for experience with it is becoming a prerequisite for most infrastructure roles coming through. Cloud, web hosted platforms, SaaS has been expanding amongst many young hedge funds, asset managers and prop trading shops due to the flexibility that it provides versus the reduced costs against owning all of the technology in house. The principal technology developments in financial and commodities technology. TECHNOLOGY TRENDING FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY V •• “There is a continued growth in demand for technologies that in past have stayed in the background.” ••
  • 26. 2 6 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T There is also a continued growth in demand for technologies that in past have stayed in the background, tech’s like Ruby and Python are being used across the industry instead of C++, C# and Java. There is however a huge demand in varying degrees of experience for talented Java, C# and C++. C# opportunities are still very prevalent in the market particularly for web development positions as more greenfield projects will begin in the latter part of the year. Automation testers are undoubtedly the hottest thing in town, they are sought to do a higher end testing procedure and take upon more of an exploratory testing position to attempt to break the products to ensure their stability. C++ has definitely made a comeback this month, with the dip at the beginning of the year definitely appearing to have subsided. Moreover it hasn’t simply been the HFT and Proprietary Trading Firms (the typical home of C++ Developers) but also Vendor’s who have been looking to add C++ Developers to their team. It seems that budgets have finely been signed off and firms have had the go ahead to add new developers to their teams. As mentioned above, Python is also becoming more popular and definitely seems to be the language of choice when it comes to Fintech Start ups that are looking for a language that is able to handle both the front and back end development. Python has typically been the hobbyist’s language of choice but has less frequently been used in a commercial environment. This is definitely starting to change and anyone with strong Python knowledge could find themselves in a very strong position over the next few months. Many software companies had already predicted their increasing importance, but the Financial industry now knows that Mobile technologies are the future of transactions. More and more effort is being put into developing mobile applications and very soon, testers and developers will have to adapt. We can already notice a huge increase in demand for these particular skills as firms are starting to realise that finding a niche in the market as well as technical partners who will be able to provide them with ideas and the right tools to move forward is crucial if they want to remain competitive. FIX Protocol and MiFID have been moving in the right direction. According to the Tabb Group 56% of Equity trades are executed in the US and 38% across Europe showing that the Protocols are more important than ever. Any business within the Ultra low Latency networks and trading platforms have paid a real investment into those technologies that allow them to get to market faster. TCP/IP and sockets for FIX and Protocols is the topic of the month within Developers and Testers. Clients are also interested in Networks for hardware levels, packet levels and Transactional levels experience. As the market gets more and more competitive in the Algo and Prop trading space the ability to capture those percentages I mentioned earlier is the difference with success and failure. •• “It seems that budgets have finely been signed off and firms have had the go ahead to add new developers to their teams.” •• Hs
  • 27. 2 7 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T TECHNOLOGY TRENDING COMMODITIES TECHNOLOGY The principal technology developments in financial and commodities technology. loud computing continues to be a topic of conversation. Many Smaller firms with low IT budget have found the cloud solution the best way to as they meet all the regulation requirements and do not need large IT teams to manage and support the software. We’re still waiting for the first Tier 1 to implement Cloud and how far they do, however, is something which is more ambiguous. In the supply chain sector there have been some great wins for two vendors Kewill and the newcomer to the SC area, Triple Point. According to recent data these two vendors have acquired the most new clients; however the size of the implementation has been a lot smaller in comparison to the traditional vendors such as SAP, Oracle and JDA. Reports on JDA have cemented that they are now the largest supply chain vendor eating up the most market share of the global supply chain industry. However other vendors such as Manhattan associates and Epicor are chasing down this mammoth supplier. C Hs Amid further scrutiny and regulatory restrictions across the energy and commodity markets we are continuing to see an increase in demand for risk management solutions. Risk professionals rely heavily on IT systems in managing their risk and with the continued need to meet market regulations the demand on these systems and the need to evolve is at a premium. We are also seeing non-traditional trading businesses seeking to invest in E/CTRM systems as part of a new focus on adapting their procurement activities. This is having the effect of increasing the demand on ETRM and CTRM providers to provide innovative and adaptive solutions in what is an already highly competitive market.
  • 28. 2 8 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T For graduate roles it is important to look at what skills are there already and be prepared to offer training. A personality fit can be much more beneficial in the long term than someone who might already tick every box. Graduate roles should be all about development within a company and the more a company is willing to expose a young candidate to the training they require to progress their own IT careers, the more likely they are to spend that career within the company that gave them that opportunity. TIPS FOR COMPANIES LOOKING TO HIRE Over the course of the year, the market has changed into a job heavy market. There are less quality candidates available in the market place and the need for networks and passive candidate pool is become more and more required. As a recruiting manager, it can become a significant advantage should you need to align yourself with minimal agencies who know your market and can access relevant profiles for your business. Keeping your process clear and streamlined is becoming a significant advantage. FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY
  • 29. 2 9 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T When the market is getting increasingly demanding in terms of specific skills, it is crucial for managers to sometimes step away from the ‘perfect candidate with all the skills required’ and instead, gain flexibility and invest in training. In the current climate it is way more important to spot a passionate and talented professional with personality who can be trained and developed and will become a core member of the team, than finding somebody who ticks all the boxes but might not stay with you for more than a year. Every candidate is different and sometimes you will come across that perfect candidate or a candidate that is either under paid or willing to take a salary drop to join your firm. Don’t let this prejudice your future searches and remember that if you want to find the absolutely perfect candidate the search will take longer. Some of the best hires can be candidates with 75% of the skills that you are looking for but who have the right attitude and are able to dramatically improve once they join your firm. It’s always better to hire someone with the right attitude over someone with all the skills but with the wrong personality for your team. As competition continues to increase and candidates are open to more offers and opportunities, it is still a good thing if hiring managers can be flexible around interviewing and getting favourable candidates in to interview before potentially losing them altogether. To protect your investment in time during interview process but more importantly protect your balance sheet long term, there is substantial research and evidence suggesting hiring based on a combination of existing talent, potential talent and common values. The studies explain that bringing in a team member sharing the same common beliefs has a far better effect on the long term performance of the overall collective compared to a superstar individuals. We are seeing increased activity with hiring with many candidates now getting multiple opportunities. To make sure you secure your first choice candidate, turn the offer letter and contract round quickly. We are seeing a lot of companies drag their heels on getting the paper work out. As hiring activity increases you could find you miss out on the candidate you want. We would like to remind hiring managers to build in planning for the summer and if you have openings in your teams be conscious that CEO / CTO sign-off may be delayed if people are going to be on holiday. Wherever possible, we recommend trying to align all the necessary processes early to ensure that when you identify the right candidate, you are able to secure them and get them on board. If there is any advice that we can give to hiring managers, it is to be as visible as possible. Explain problems to your recruiter so they can manage the candidate’s expectations. You don’t want to lose the ideal candidate over a simple error of miscommunication If you are struggling to hire for a certain position think about if there is any scope for flexibility in any particular area from the salary to the skill demand required. When you find a candidate that you like, move quickly because the likelihood is that they will be interviewing elsewhere. We are seeing contracts being offered at 6 to 12 months in length which allows hiring managers to reduce the overall cost of hiring contract resource. The 3 month contracts, which are fast fill, band aids tend to drain the most costs from hiring budgets. If you have the ability to extend contract lengths or the sign off to offer over an extended period, you will see more value for money in the contract resources you bring in as negotiations will be favourable to you. Hs COMMODITIES TECHNOLOGY
  • 30. 3 0 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T Improving skills is a must. Anything you can take on in your own time from graduate up to management via blogs, qualifications, magazines just to boost all round knowledge can only be helpful in the hunt for a job. This coupled with total honesty from the start of your job hunt, with agents, employers and yourself. A tangled web of deceit will trip up the most solid of applications. TIPS FOR CANDIDATES LOOKING FOR WORK Despite the market growth and the pickup of the economy, it is still a competitive market place for candidates. It is vital to take the time to build a strong CV for yourself, this is easier said than done. They key things to remember are to keep it to the point, bullet pointed with context and include the technologies and versions used. Spelling and grammar is always essential to get right and it is always good to refer in the past tense. Check out our YouTube video for further details and/or get in touch with a consultant at Harrington Starr if you want some advice. FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY
  • 31. 3 1 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T Spending some time on your CV, explaining what you have actually been doing, what tools you have been using and how you have used them will give a deeper understanding of what you could potentially bring to a new employer. Investment of time here will maximise the productivity of your job search. Identify what is important to you, what you enjoy and where you want your career to take you, this makes it much easier for candidates identify opportunities that match they’re desires, this in turn transpires to hiring managers and improves your chances. It sounds so simple but there has been an increasing number of hiring managers that have said agents have sent them candidates who have lied on their CV’s and been dishonest immediately putting in the candidate in a bad light. One of the key points in an interview is to be honest but show that you are willing to do anything to get yourself up to scratch or where you need to be. Another point in this market, there is a lot of competition for positions and candidates need to be very aware not to be too cocky or confident and to seem interested in the position without being pushy or nosey on the little facts at early stages. Be sure to prepare well for interviews and make sure you leave a lasting impression in the best way possible. Make sure you can account for every sentence and skill on your CV and make sure you have done research into the company and know as much as possible about the role you are interviewing for. It is also important to remember that although some hiring managers can interview in a relaxed manner, this sometimes is to assess how far you will take the term “comfortable” so do not fall into the trap of thinking that is may be as informal as it seems. Be relaxed but not too relaxed. Utilise LinkedIn to the best of your ability – make yourself as marketable as possible. Connect to all companies you are interested in and make sure you have the most up to date copy of your CV downloadable from your profile. If you are really big on technology, maybe even consider writing a blog or a few articles to post onto your LinkedIn account as these small things can make a big difference in illustrating just how serious you are about making the next big move. Remember how important it is to be honest on your CV – even with minor details. We hear horror stories of candidates who have on their CV’s with skills that weren’t necessary for the position but have ended up costing them the opportunity. Don’t put a technology or a type of system on your CV if you aren’t fully able to answer questions on the them in the interview. Even if the skill isn’t important to the role it can put managers off your profile and is one of the most common pet peeves that we hear from managers. Many Developers will pack their CV’s full of every single technology they have come across or used very briefly. However often it is the opposite that can really impress managers. A clear concise description of the core technologies that you have used and the ways that you have used them will impress managers, especially when you are able to confidently and coherently answer questions on them in the interview. Remember that less can equal more. For developers and testers, the trend is clear. If you want to find the best possible opportunities in Finance, you have got to start playing around with Mobile applications and read about Finance to start getting a real understanding of what the requirements given to you really mean to the business you are/will be working for.
  • 32. 3 2 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T The Market is rapidly changing and the systems which have to be developed and tested are getting increasingly complex. This means that financial firms now require candidates to get a grasp of the basics of Finance to be able to get an advantage on their competitors. Even in this candidate driven market place where there are many roles and limited people to fill them we are finding that sometimes the best people are letting themselves down in the interview process. More often than not full preparation or technical revision has lacked. Interviews are not letting the market dictate their decisions and are waiting for the right people to ensure ling tern personality fit. We are encouraging candidates to fully consider their options so that they can interview genuinely with honest passion and preparation. Make sure during your interview you explain why you want to join the company. During this conversation make sure you give real value to what the company do and what you are looking to achieve and why. Many candidates miss this opportunity to express their desire to join a company. Managers are much more likely to hire candidates who want to work for them, so please let express that desire during your interview. Research the company before you go into the interview this will allow you understand where the organisation is coming from and provide you the ability to ask question to the hiring mangers afterwards. Be very clear about what you want and why you want this can vary from salary demands to what industry you work in. Do as much research as you can and make sure you show your enthusiasm for the position. This is key with the amount of candidates going for the position you need to stand out. Take your time and prepare, practice questions and visit your recruiter to practice the interview. A little bit of practice can make the difference between an average interview and an excellent interview. COMMODITIES TECHNOLOGY
  • 33. 3 3 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T Ensure that your online profile is up to date and that your key skills are regularly repeated throughout. This will enable you to be found easier by organisations. Also make sure you have a profile picture on your profile as you are ten times more likely to be viewed. It is very important to include both technical & business knowledge of your CV and be specific – if you are mentioning a technology be very clear about your skills in this area e.g. SQL (read & write queries, multi-table joins, triggers), likewise for business knowledge e.g. Fixed Income (direct front office exposure & knowledge of trade entry and pricing) – this will ensure anyone reading your CV will very quickly be able to get an accurate overview of your knowledge. It is also important to resist the temptation to overstate your knowledge. A number of candidates will list numerous technologies & business areas that, upon further investigation, are not known in any appreciable level of detail. Rather than demonstrating that your knowledge is broad, this will almost certainly be highlighted at interview stage and will undermine your credibility as a candidate. Be specific, honest & detailed about the areas you really know, don’t exaggerate areas you don’t. Due to market conditions over the past few years there has broadly been a reluctance on the side of candidates to make their next career move. However with the increased positivity across the recruitment market within financial services and commodity technology we believe that this as an ideal time for candidates to explore new opportunities and leverage their careers by making that next step in their career. Those candidates who are open to change and willing to explore new opportunities will be get the rewards. Hs Contract candidates who have taken on a number of various short term engagements, can make their CVs more legible and attractive to prospective employers by listing the company they were working for (either Limited or Umbrella company) and then putting down the various roles as projects. This will make the contractor appear more consultative in nature and will soften the questions surrounding the ‘jumpiness’ of his employment. It’s holiday season, it can be slow this time of year to look for a position. Roles can drag on as key decision-makers are on holiday and lengthen the recruitment process. Do not get disappointed by this, it is one of the trends in the contracting job market. Instead, use this time to reinvest in yourself, if there are any qualifications or courses that are relevant to your profession then use this as an opportunity to increase your employability then push on again with your job search with a more employable CV. CONTRACT
  • 34. 3 4 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T HARRINGTON STARR ANNOUNCEMENTS Notifications and the latest from Harrington Starr. EVENTS We were delighted to be the event partner alongside the Currency Cloud for London New Finance’s meetup “Finance in the Cloud” at the Cass Business School. A collection of 100 technology professionals, service providers and entrepreneurs met to enjoy a lively education and debate on the future of Cloud in FinTech with excellent speakers in George Kaye of Derivitiec, Jared Broad from QuantConnect and Gary Turner from Xero. Thanks again to Eddie for arranging such a great event and it was lovely to meet some genuinely inspirational innovators in the space. We are looking forward to working with London New Finance on future events and will keep you informed on dates and subjects. Harrington Starr Event Partner London New Finance “Finance in the Cloud”
  • 35. 3 5 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T The Fourth Financial Services and Commodities Technology breakfast is now almost fully booked with over 100 leaders in the sector set to join us at the Westbury Hotel in Mayfair on September 24th. The keynote will be led by Ben Hunt-Davis MBE who won Gold for Team GB at the Sydney Olympics. Ben’s company “Will it Make the Boat go Faster” focuses on bringing Olympic Winning Strategies to Everyday life. Described as one of the most inspirational speakers in the UK, we are looking forward to the event already. The networking breakfasts are designed to create opportunities for our clients, connecting the community and we are delighted that successful business returns have been made in every event to date. Having outgrown the Ritz, the new venue brings our biggest audience yet and we are excited by both the calibre of the guest list as it stands and the range of opportunities that we believe will be presented to the delegates. Please contact us or CLICK HERE should you be interested in joining us at this exclusive, invitation only event. The Fourth Financial Services And Commodities Networking Breakfast EVENTS
  • 36. 3 6 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T The First Annual Harrington Starr seminar is booked for October 22nd. Over 250 of the World’s leaders in financial services and commodities technology will join us at the Westbury Hotel to explore Talent in the 21ST Century. Two panels will look at the links between sport and business to explore what can be done to better identify talent and define what makes a team great. Talent In The 21st Century Talent in the 21st Century THE WESTBURY HOTEL MAYFAIR, LONDON TUESDAY OCTOBER 22nd, 8am Simon Hartley Author, Sport Psychology Consultant, Performance Coach and Founder of Be- World-Class. Greg Searle MBE Practice Director at Lane4, Gold Medallist and 3 time Olympian and author of “If not now then when.” Ben Hunt-Davis MBE Gold Medal winning Olympian and Founder of Will it Make the Boat go Faster. Simon Sear Senior Change Consultant in Commodities Trading and Author of Kencho, the Art of Happiness. Khoi Tu Author of SuperTeams and an international teamwork and leadership consultant. THE FIRST PANEL WILL LOOK AT THE COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF ELITE PERFORMERS AND WHAT DEFINES THE GREATEST TEAMS IN HISTORY. THIS LOOKS SET TO INCLUDE: PANEL1 EVENTS
  • 37. 3 7 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T Invitations to the event will start to be sent in mid October and again, extensive opportunities will exist for networking and business introductions. We want our audience to go away with practical strategies to implement in their businesses to make better hiring decisions, improve team performance and improve retention. More details to follow. Blake Wooster Founder of the 21st Club, Author of Touchlinetoboardroom and former director at Prozone Sports. Rasmus Ankersen Author of the Gold Mine Effect, high performance anthropologist and International business consultant. Mike Forde Director of Football Operations at Chelsea FC and international business speaker. Lee McQueen Founder of the Raw Talent Academy and winner of the Apprentice 2008. Toby Babb Founder and Director of Harrington Starr with 15 years of building teams in financial services and commodities technology. PANEL 2 Talent In The 21st Century THE SECOND PANEL WILL DISCUSS THE TALENT CYCLE: IDENTIFICATION, RECRUITMENT, DEVELOPMENT, RETENTION AND RELEASE. THIS PANEL WILL INCLUDE:
  • 38. 3 8 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T CONTRACT RATE SURVEY July also saw the sector’s most comprehensive contract rate survey released. Looking at 538 separate rates bands and pooling information from 4,950 contract technology professionals and 2,200 companies, this shows headline figures of an average rate of £461 a day in the industry. For a full copy of this outstanding document, please get in touch with the Harrington Starr contract team. WEBSITE The launch of the Harrington Starr website is now set for mid August. Breaking the norms of just being an online job board or brochure, the site will be a destination for content and information in the financial services and commodities technology sector. White papers and surveys will be able to be accessed and downloaded, we will maintain a constatnt stream of content, have blog articles from leaders in FinTech, Commodities, and performance and look to produce articles and information that assists all of our customers. We’d love to hear your feedback and will work to ensure that we create a site that is moulded to your needs. Additionally, should you wish to contribute articles or release news in your business, contact our editorial team on 0203 587 7007. VIDEO The Harrington Starr YouTube Channel is another complimentary service designed to help our candidates and clients. Shooting of the next series happened in late July and August will see seven more video guides released including: ■ What investors look for in FinTech Start Ups ■ The Three Biggest Interview Mistakes ■ Retaining Talent ■ Building your online profile ■ Preparing the perfect CV ■ Delivering World Class Interviews We hope they help and please feel free to get in touch for more information or free one to one consultancy services from the Harrington Starr team. Here is an example: Click to view To visit our You Tube channel, please click here TIPS TO PREPARE FOR YOUR INTERVIEW IN FINANCIAL SERVICES AND COMMODITIES TECHNOLOGY
  • 39. 3 9 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T WHITEPAPERS August will see the next series of Harrington Starr White Papers released including: ■ A special report of women in financial technology ■ A guide to FinTech Start Ups and what Investors look for ■ Supply Chain Software ■ Regulatory Compliance for Energy & Commodity Trading ■ The Route to a Six Figure Salary in Technology ■ A Guide to Maximising your Online Profile Accessible through the download section of the new website, we will produce monthly papers aimed at helping the community. We would also be delighted to send copies of our recent reports on Six Lessons for Building SuperTeams and “The Real Cost of Losing Staff and How to Keep your Best Talent.” Should you be looking for reports to help in your sector, again please do get in touch. YOUR VIEWS This is an extremely exciting time for the Harrington Starr brand and we are delighted to be launching a series of new initiatives in the second half of the year. Whilst all of these changes have been driven by the voice of our customers, we are constantly looking to refine and improve the value added services that we provide on top of our recruitment delivery. We believe in being of service through introductions, business consultancy, insight and events. If you have ideas on what we can do to help, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact Toby Babb on 0203 587 7007. G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T WWW.HARRINGTONSTARR.COM Company Registration Number: 7246003 Company Headquarters: 99 Waterloo Road, London, SE1 8UL Company Telephone Number: 0203 587 7007 Company Email: info@harringtonstarr.com Company Registered Address: Cornerstone House, 9 Lord Chancellor Walk, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey, KT2 7HG. Six lessons for building super teams 6
  • 40. 4 0 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T N Harrington Starr: David, why have Harrington Starr chosen Germany as the first international destination? David: Over the past few years at Harrington Starr we have experienced a continued and increasing demand from our clients to provide them with solutions for their international operations. With the core of our Financial Services and Commodity customers outside of the UK based across Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Holland; Germany was the logical choice giving us access to each of these locations. I am with easy access of to the international Financial and Commodity Trading hubs in Frankfurt, Zurich, Zug, Munich and with a day or two’s notice I can be in Geneva quite easily. Harrington Starr: Why have you chosen now to take this step? David: It has always been part of Harrington Starr’s mandate to open offices globally, but to be honest this has happened a little quicker than everyone expected. The reason for it is that my partner who is German was offered a fantastic opportunity to relocate and join a company based here in Germany and it was something that she couldn’t turn down. When I spoke to Toby, James, Nadia and Alex and explained my situation they immediately saw this as an opportunity to build and move forward. INTERVIEW WITH David Peglar In Harrington Starr’s Stuttgart Office July saw Harrington Starr launch our first international office in Germany. Here we talk to David Peglar on the opportunities in the DACH’s market and settling into his new surroundings. Harrington Starr: How would you describe the Recruitment Market in the European and DACH’s region? David: Overall within the Financial Service and Commodity Technology space I think that it is a very exciting time. We are continuing to see a great deal of demand for technology specialists from the traditional commodity trading and energy organizations as well as the increased demand from non- traditional trading businesses who are looking to invest in this technology. Vendors and Consultancies alike are also seeking the best talent across Europe and to repeat what I have said it is extremely important for us to be close to our customer and candidates alike to understand their needs and pain points. •• “Overall withinthe Financial Serviceand Commodity Technology spaceIthink thatitisa very exciting time.” ••
  • 41. 4 1 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T Harrington Starr: What do you see as the main opportunities in the market today? David: I think Germany and the DACH’s region has yet to fully embrace social media and active sourcing as integral part of their day-to-day recruitment. I also feel that the level of service in the recruitment sector is not up to a level matching other industries here, so for me the opportunity is replicate the things that we already do on a daily basis in London and taking those values and approaches into the market over here. Harrington Starr was founded with a view to engage with clients and candidates with 6 core values that are central to providing the best customer service. I think that there is a huge opportunity to offer this same service across Europe and although it may be small steps at first, I have no doubt that we will have great success in the future. Harrington Starr: What defines the critical success factors for you when recruiting in the European market? David: I believe that success in the DACH’s market is defined by being able to understand and satisfy local market needs first, and then being able to leverage these internationally. In many cases we are already leveraging our relationships with our customer base in the UK who have operations over here, but by being closer to our clients I will be able to ensure that we can better understand their needs and become a trusted advisor and partner. Harrington Starr: What is your take on the future of recruiting in Germany and the DACH’s region? David: I think that as a whole recruiters have some catching up to do in regards to using professional networks and immersing themselves in international markets; couple that with the Financial Services and Commodities technology market’s need on attracting very skilled resources, the market may struggle to satisfy its recruiting needs. However I feel that there is significant potential for success for recruiters that are willing and able to rise above the current status quo. I feel that with Harrington Starr’s innovative recruiting campaigns and strategies, our use of the latest technology such as our market leading mobile app and our desire to provide outstanding customer service as well as integrating better and more effectively with our customers’ needs that we have a fantastic chance of being a great success. Harrington Starr: Keep up the good news David. We look forward to seeing the European team grow rapidly in the coming months. Hs
  • 42. 4 2 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T o Summarise, it has been another great month for professionals and companies in financial services and commodities technology. There has been a robust performance from the markets and confidence has returned in making investments in technology to bring trading advantage. The increasing levels of activity in M&A, investments, partnerships and projects have led to outstanding career opportunities being created. Once again, the market has switched to becoming candidate led with those with specialist skill sets collecting offers at will. Whilst not fully back to pre 2008 levels, there are increasingly positive noises being made throughout the employment sector. A summary of the main trends from the overview SUMMARY The Commodities space is thriving. Vendor technology is improving by the day and the clamour for innovation in the trading systems has led to heavy investment in tech throughout the world. Perhaps the most truly global sector that there is, demand for Oil & Gas is booming, fracking keeps the sector in the press and trading opportunities are in abundance. There are clear winners in the technology space with Linux very much becoming the O/S of choice in financial institutions. Testing has resurged as user’s demand increasing perfection in usability and Python is re-emerging rapidly as a language. We leave this commentary excited about getting our teeth into August and positive about the opportunities that the market is presenting for technology professionals and companies alike. We hope that the month proves extremely successful for you and please do not hesitate to get in touch should Harrington Starr be able to be of service. See you next month. T Hs
  • 43. 4 3 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T HARRINGTON STARR About Harrington Starr is a recruitment business based solely around the needs of the customer. Global specialists in Financial Services and Commodities Technology recruitment, Harrington Starr offer permanent, retained, interim, and contract solutions to over 400 of the leading companies in the world and many thousands of the globes most talented industry professionals. Covering Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, Prop Trading Houses, Exchanges, MTFs, Market Makers, Brokerages, Trading Companies, Vendors and Consultancies, the company is ideally suited to connect world class talent with world class opportunity. We strongly believe in authentic networking and being of service. With this in mind, our offer extends well beyond traditional contingency recruitment. White papers, commentaries, market information, networking introductions, consulting, video, content and a series of events all combine as complimentary services aimed at delivering true partnership in deed as well as word. The foundation of the business is, however, excellent delivery with old fashioned values of manners and respect. We believe in excellence through understanding – both the sector itself but also the real needs of our clients and candidates. We love this industry and would be delighted to discuss the Harrington Starr Mystique and how we can help you in more detail.
  • 44. 4 4 G LO B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A NCI A L S E R V I C E S A N D CO M M O D I T I E S T EC H N O LO G Y R EC R U I T M E N T WWW.HARRINGTONSTARR.COM DESIGNEDBYDANIELBIDDULPH~DAN.BIDDULPH@ME.COM @harringtonstarr (search Harrington Starr) 99 WATERLOO ROAD LONDON SE1 8RT T: +0044 203 587 7007 E: INFO@HARRINGTONSTARR.COM HARRINGTON STARR LIMITED FollowUs On Twitter FollowUs On Linked In Download Our Free App