News Analysis
'Brighter year' for securitisation recruitment
The structured finance industry has seen one of its best years in terms of hiring since the financial crisis, according to recruiters. While ABS was the standout sector for recruitment in the US in 1H17, CLO hiring activity continued to be strong in Europe.
One headhunter believes that 2017 has been particularly buoyant for the UK and Europe. "In various spaces, it's all bubbling away nicely. Over the last 10 years, I've seen a lot worse and can't really point to any year that has been a lot better. It's one of the brighter years - not huge levels of hiring, but it is going at a good pace."
While individual sectors haven't seen exponential growth, the CLO sector is faring better in the UK and Europe than it has previously and hopes are high that it will continue to be a highlight. The headhunter says: "CLOs have been fairly upbeat hiring-wise, fed by an up-tick in issuance. It hasn't translated into a huge hiring spree, but these firms are also not light on staff anyway. I can potentially see CLOs being a good area in terms of future hiring."
A major boost to the sector has been the eagerness of firms to utilise existing securitisation expertise. The recruiter adds: "A major positive development is that I'm not seeing people out of the market for long. Talented people seem to get snapped up pretty quickly at the moment. Employers are also being smarter by, for example, hiring certain senior figures in a temporary capacity and that is feeding into longer-term hires."
It is generally agreed, however, that traditional firms - particularly banks - are still not hiring at a significant level. Lisa Wilson, managing partner of Invictus Executive Search, says that while trade receivables saw securitisation hires in the UK last year, this has now slowed - along with the marketplace lending and financial technology sectors.
After the decline in bank hiring, jobs continue to mainly come from niche or peripheral companies. Those hiring are rating agencies, support industries, law firms and work-out teams, according to Wilson.
Furthermore, she says that jobs are often going to those with the broadest expertise. "In terms of actual new hires, on occasion, there might be someone hired as a 'jack of all trades'. Otherwise, there's just not much happening."
She continues: "People are hiring at vp level and that's about it - they're not hiring seniors, they're not hiring at associate level. If you are going to get hired, you need to have experience in every asset class, every sector and lots of knowledge."
In the US, meanwhile, the securitisation market saw a surge of activity at the start of 2017, with a cooling off towards the summer. Chadrin Dean, president and managing partner for Sandford Rose Associates, Integrated Management, comments that activity has been "decent in the US so far this year, with Q1 being particularly strong."
He continues: "The ABS sector has been notably active, particularly on the origination side and in esoterics. Equipment and aviation, in particular, has seen an up-tick and this has fed into secondary market hires. Generally, ABS has been the most robust sector."
In the RMBS space, there has also been a good level of activity and, notably, hasn't been confined to agency RMBS. Dean says: "In RMBS, the non-agency space has been steady, but the main area of hiring there has been in the secondary market as there has been little new issuance."
Despite an up-tick in Q1, hiring activity has still been in relatively small numbers and specific seniority. Dean adds: "On the whole, it's been mainly individual hires rather than anything in bulk and this has mostly been at the vp or svp level."
Looking ahead, geopolitical events dominate concerns for the UK and the US with varying degrees of optimism. Wilson comments that while Brexit was a big concern when it was announced initially, she is hopeful about the potential outcome. She says that there is "a bit more certainty after Brexit...if a decent deal is done, that could help create a good environment for a renewal in securitisation activity that could feed into hiring in the sector again."
Dean, however, is slightly more cautious about the near to medium term. He concludes: "Looking ahead, it's hard to see where things will go. But in the US, I think most of us are just holding our breath and hoping not to see any extreme geopolitical event, as things seem quite unstable. The optimism that Trump's election might boost business has started to fade, as those hopes haven't yet materialised."
19/07/2017 16:16:51
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