Victoria Heathcoate, Associate Director - Risk & Compliance Advisory, discusses why the recent result may have a silver lining or two...

As we start to see the dust start settle on Friday's historic events, we are all no doubt thinking how this will affect us personally. Should you book that holiday, move house or indeed move jobs? We are all feeling the chill of uncertainty.

One area that is seeing the positives in all this uncertainty is the financial services advisory sector.  Global consulting firms have over the past few months seen the demand for regulatory change, RRP (recovery & resolution planning) , prudential and liquidity risk guidance and robust risk management.  As one leading figure in the sector told me “change drives revenue “.

As things are today, the UK financial sector is governed by EU regulatory standards, but for how long? We have as yet no idea. With this in mind, every financial business in the land will be looking at the cost and implications to their business of regulatory change. The global players will turn to one place for assurance and guidance on this  -  the advisory sector. No other sector has the agility and knowledge to interpret the huge amount of information being thrown in to the public domain from Brussels, the FCA, PRA and Treasury.  The advisory sector has for months now been looking at all the implications of Brexit and the potential implications to the financial sector, providing pragmatic, expert and effective solutions to their clients.

So where is the silver lining? The silver lining is the huge upturn in opportunities for regulatory and risk professionals within these firms.  Prior to Brexit, the demand for SME’s within the regulatory and risk space was outstripping the market but now we are set to see this market boom.  Long term, rewarding and challenging careers are there for the taking if you have the skills and drive to succeed in an advisory environment. Expertise in Investment Banking and Asset Management are massively in demand across all areas of regulatory risk from conduct risk, CASS, market abuse, MiFID, liquidity risk, prudential regulation and transaction reporting to name but a few.

Buck the trend and take your career to the next level by seeing the positive rewards that are there for you within advisory firms. If you would like to discuss this further please email Victoria Heathcote on vh@ojassociates.com for a confidential chat.