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Compliance Officers Are Looking to Government for Job Security
By Brian Monroe
printFacing layoffs and market turmoil, some former and current anti-money laundering officers are turning to the one place they believe will offer them stable income and job security: the United States government. The move is something of a reversal. In the past, officials at government regulatory agencies - including the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Reserve Board - have left the public sector for high-paying jobs as Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) officers at large banks. But in the last two years, the number of bank...
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A hiring spate by some of the largest banks facing a variety of regulatory pressures has resulted in more than just a glut of compliance officers. It's been a training headache too.
The median salaries of compliance officers tasked with identifying money laundering and other financial crimes rose nearly six percent from 2011 to 2012, according to an industry survey released Thursday.
A growing number of compliance professionals expect that someone at a bank, even a compliance officer, will be prosecuted for violating the Bank Secrecy Act in the not-too-distant future.
The ongoing U.S. financial regulatory overhaul and recent compliance penalties have sharply increased the demand for seasoned anti-money laundering professionals at federal agencies and banks, say sources.
Record anti-money laundering penalties in 2010 and sounder financial footing at most financial institutions following an economic downturn is prompting dozens of banks and consulting firms to add more than a thousand compliance positions, say recruiting companies.
After more than a year of shrinking, the anti-money laundering job market is showing signs of growth again, with large financial institutions looking to refill top slots in compliance departments.
Job cuts among the anti-money laundering staff of small to mid-sized financial institutions are prompting regulatory examiners to lower bank compliance ratings, federal regulators said at a conference Tuesday.
Federal regulators are evaluating the merits of anti-money laundering compliance staff in an effort to ensure that unqualified individuals weren't hired to cut costs, according to bank officials.
A former U.S. Treasury Department official who oversaw the nation's sanctions program and financial intelligence unit only to take a senior position at Merrill Lynch is returning to government service.