These are fortunate times if you’re a newly qualified ACA with a sense that your destiny lies in product control. After a period of limited recruitment in which only experienced product controllers were even vaguely appealing, banks are hiring juniors again.

Even more fortunately, banks’ renewed appetite for juniors coincides with the time when ACAs get their exam results and are free to move out of private practice.

“In the past few months there’s been a move back to banks taking on newly qualifieds straight from practice as opposed to those with 18-24 months’ experience,” says Andrew Hanson, director of the financial services practice at Robert Walters. “The package most banks will offer to newly qualifieds has plateaued at 54-55k, after falling as low as 50k 12 months ago,” he adds.

Because bonuses are modest, hiring in product control is unconstrained by the need to buy people out in the fourth quarter. While front office hiring is now trailing off, product control hiring is therefore still going strong.

“Recruitment in product control is up around 50% on last year,” says Mike Hartwell of recruitment firm Hartwell Buck. “Banks are paying a lot more attention to the control mechanisms underpinning their activities.”

A corollary to increased demand for ACAs as product controllers is banks’ reduced interest in unqualified types. “There’s less interest in settlements clerks who don’t have an accounting qualification but have been doing product control for the past few years,” says Hartwell.

The head of the banking division at a major accountancy recruiter confirms this. “The calibre of candidates they’re looking for has completely stepped up. Banks really want people who have an ACA and can understand the products straight off,” she adds.