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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: [email protected] 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 GLOBAL LEADERS IN FINANCIAL SERVICES AND COMMODITIES TECHNOLOGY RECRUITMENT
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HS Insight - August 2013

Sep 08, 2014

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This is Harrington Starr's latest monthly market commentary, looking back at the last month in the Financial Services Technology Market Space.

This month it also includes an interview with Eddie George, the CEO of NewFinance, one of the largest FinTech monthly meet ups in London.

If you have any questions on this month's commentary then please get in touch at [email protected] or give us a call on 0203 002 2850.
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Page 1: HS Insight - August 2013

WWW.HARRINGTONSTARR.COMCompany Registration Number: 7246003

Company Headquarters: 99 Waterloo Road, London, SE1 8UL

Company Telephone Number: 0203 587 7007Company Email: [email protected]

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 INSIGHTAUGUST

2013

G L O B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A N C I A L S E R V I C E S A N D C O M M O D I T I E S T E C H N O L O G Y R E C R U I T M E N T

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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

August 2013MarketCommentary

HARRINGTON STARR

Welcome

MarketCommentaryHARRINGTON 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 NEWSFinancial TechnologyCommodities Technology

SALARY OVERVIEWFinancial TechnologyCommodities Technology

HIGH DEMAND SKILLSFinancial Technology Commodities Technology

BUSINESS TRENDINGFinancial Technology Commodities Technology

TECHNOLOGY TRENDINGFinancial Technology Commodities Technology

Tips for Companies Looking to Hire Tips for Candidates Looking for WorkAnnouncements Interview With David PeglarSummary

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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 - £490Commodities Trading - £486Asset Management - £473Exchange, Brokerage, MTF - £464Vendor - £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 GeorgeFounder and CEO of NewFinance, the UK’s largest Financial TechnologyInnovation 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 GeorgeFounder 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.

A

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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

There 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.

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“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.

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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.

••

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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

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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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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 OVERVIEWCOMMODITIES TECHNOLOGY

Salary fluctuations and trends in financial services and commodities technology.

SMany 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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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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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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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 SKILLSCOMMODITIES 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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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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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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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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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 TRENDING

The 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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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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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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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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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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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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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.

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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 CenturyTHE WESTBURY HOTEL MAYFAIR, LONDON

TUESDAY OCTOBER 22nd, 8am

Simon Hartley Author, Sport Psychology Consultant, Performance Coach and Founder of Be-World-Class.

Greg Searle MBEPractice 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 SearSenior Change Consultant in Commodities Trading and Author of Kencho, the Art of Happiness.

Khoi TuAuthor of SuperTeamsand 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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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 WoosterFounder of the 21st Club, Author of Touchlinetoboardroom and former director at Prozone Sports.

Rasmus AnkersenAuthor of the Gold Mine Effect, high performance anthropologist and International business consultant.

Mike FordeDirector of Football Operations at Chelsea FC and international business speaker.

Lee McQueenFounder of the Raw Talent Academy and winner of the Apprentice 2008.

Toby BabbFounder and Director of Harrington Starr with 15 years of building teams in financial services and commodities technology.

PANEL

2Talent 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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CONTRACT RATE SURVEYJuly 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.

WEBSITEThe 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.

VIDEOThe 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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WHITEPAPERSAugust 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 VIEWSThis 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 L O B A L L E A D E R S I N F I N A N C I A L S E R V I C E S A N D C O M M O D I T I E S T E C H N O L O G Y R E C R U I T M E N T

WWW.HARRINGTONSTARR.COMCompany Registration Number: 7246003Company Headquarters: 99 Waterloo Road, London, SE1 8ULCompany Telephone Number: 0203 587 7007Company Email: [email protected] Registered Address: Cornerstone House, 9 Lord Chancellor Walk, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey, KT2 7HG.

Six lessons for building super teams

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INTERVIEW WITH DAVID PEGLAR IN HARRINGTON STARR’S STUTTGART OFFICE

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 OfficeJuly 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 within the Financial

Service and Commodity Technology

space I think that it is a

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.

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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 overviewSUMMARY

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

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HARRINGTON STARR

AboutHarrington 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.