Managing a relationship with the FSA while also driving a bank’s strategy on regulatory capital requirements might not sound like the most exciting role, but it’s one that’s quickly heating up in 2011.

Both retail banks and investment banks are hiring regulatory capital expertise to sit in their risk teams, liaise with the regulator and ensure the firm is able meet tough Basel III capital adequacy requirements.

Banks are already struggling with this, and the likes Credit Suisse and HSBC have lowered their return on equity targets in response to looming regulation. Standard & Poor’s suggests even these revised aims could be stretching it for most banks.

“Essentially banks are looking for a combination of governance and project management skills as well as an inherent grasp of the models and someone who can interface with both internal stakeholders and the regulators,” says Adrian Marples, head of risk at Kinsey Allen. “These people are hard to come by and fully aware of their worth so can often name their price.”

Within reason – base salaries for these roles start at around 100k, says Priya Mariannie, senior risk consultant at recruiter PSD Group, and because of the need for diplomacy when facing off to regulators, the ideal candidate has experience at the FSA.

In February, JP Morgan revealed it had hired Sally Dewar, former head of risk at the FSA, as an MD to coordinate it’s response to regulatory change. We also understand that Santander, BNY Mellon and most top tier investment banks are looking to hire in this area.

Mariannie says that banks are prepared to be flexible on the people they hire in this area. However, because of the difficulty most firms have faced finding the right combination of skills, some are turning to external consultancies, suggests Mike Leeman, manager, finance recruitment at Bright Purple Resourcing.

“This is a growing area, but not as many banks are recruiting a dedicated resource as you might have thought,” he says. “Instead, they’re turning to either Big Four firms, or more niche consultancies, which are then in turn bolstering their teams.”

Firms such as Avantage, EA Consulting and Navigant have made hires recently on the back of this increased demand, suggest recruiters.