Rising demand for collateral and portfolio reconciliation professionals will be a key trend for the banking and financial services sector.

This is according to Lynne Hardman, managing director, professional services at financial recruiter Badenoch & Clark.

Hardman says: “We anticipate an increase in demand for collateral and portfolio reconciliation roles and transaction reporting roles.

“Retention will be a key focus as banks have boosted their teams significantly in 2010 and will now be intent on retaining talent, and ensuring the continued influx of opportunities onto the market doesn’t see their own talent leave.

“Clients will start preparing for the impact of Basel III. This could mean an increase in demand for regulatory accounting experience, particularly with liquidity and risk skillsets. Many clients may opt to move permanent staff into project roles in preparation, so we may see some backfill hiring.

“The risk market will continue to be a high priority across financial services. We expect ACA qualified operational risk professionals to be in high demand, along with market risk professionals with strong product/VaR modelling and reporting backgrounds.

“An increase in contract hires are predicted within compliance, to train staff on new regulations. There will continue to be high levels of contract hires for change management roles in 2011. We expect to see a surge in operations and finance project-based recruitment.”