Investment bankers aren’t the only people benefiting from the balmy financial services climate. Management consultants are doing very well too.

Nicholas Barton, head of the commerce practice at recruitment firm Astbury Marsden, says firms like the Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Co., and Booz Allen Hamilton have dramatically increased headcount in their financial services consulting groups this year.

“Until twelve to fifteen months ago, headcount at consulting firms was pretty static,” he says. “But as the amount of work from financial services firms has increased, staffing needs have risen dramatically.”

A new study from the Management Consultancies Association ranks the financial services sector as the fastest growing area of the management consultancy industry in the UK. In the past year, it says fee income in the sector rose 50% to 1.3bn.

Logica, another consulting firm, set up a financial services practice for the first time this year.

Barton says increased business has prompted consulting firms to raise pay for financial services consultants, who can now earn a base salary of 75,000 to 90,000 with five years’ post MBA experience, plus a 10% to 20% bonus. This is up at least 15% on last year.

Unfortunately for consultancy firms, Barton says investment banks are increasingly eager to poach their staff for internal strategy consulting roles. He says pay in banking is marginally higher, with similar base salaries and bonuses topping 40%.