What does financial-services hiring look like today?

Financial services keeps hiring at the top of the skills ladder. In the sector, recruitment was generally for Regulatory Qualification Framework (RQF) 6+ roles, rather than RQF 3-5 GOV.UK - Temporary Shortage List: Stage 2 report. In plain terms, RQF 6 sits at degree level and above, so firms are reaching for people who can carry real responsibility from day one.

That tells us something simple. The work that sits at the heart of banking, reading a business and forming a view on it, cannot be automated away or pushed down to junior routine. It needs people with training, context and judgement. The demand pattern in the sector confirms that higher-level roles are where the pressure sits GOV.UK - Temporary Shortage List: Stage 2 report.

Why do senior, qualified roles dominate the sector?

The core task has not changed. A banker still has to read a company's accounts, test its assumptions, weigh its risks and decide whether to back it. That is skilled, human work. It is why recruitment in financial services leans towards RQF 6+ roles rather than RQF 3-5 GOV.UK - Temporary Shortage List: Stage 2 report.

When the roles you need are senior and regulated, the cost of a wrong hire climbs. You are not filling a seat. You are trusting someone with client relationships, credit decisions and your firm's reputation. So the question for every hiring manager becomes sharper: how do we find people who can genuinely read a business, not just recite a framework?

How do you hire well in financial services?

Start by separating the qualification from the judgement. A certificate tells you someone has passed a bar. It does not tell you how they think under pressure or whether they can spot a weak assumption in a set of accounts. Build your assessment around real work: give a short case, a messy balance sheet or a live scenario, and watch how they reason.

• Write the role around outcomes, not just qualifications, so you attract people who can do the work.
• Use a short, realistic exercise that mirrors reading a business, then review how they reason, not only what they conclude.
• Check regulatory fit early, since senior roles in the sector sit at RQF 6+ GOV.UK - Temporary Shortage List: Stage 2 report.
• Move quickly, because strong people with the right judgement rarely stay on the market for long.
• Involve the team who will work alongside the hire, so you test for fit as well as skill.

Speed and rigour are not opposites. The firms that win the best people are the ones that assess seriously and still move fast, keeping a good person engaged rather than losing them to a slower, vaguer process.

Where does our recruitment agent fit in financial-services hiring?

This is where we help. We search a database of 15 million candidates to surface people who match the senior, qualified roles the sector keeps asking for, then manage the process end to end for you. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. If you are hiring for roles where reading a business is the daily work, start a search with Reed.ai today.

Sources

• GOV.UK - Temporary Shortage List: Stage 2 report