Four Specialist Resources Every CFO Should Know: Regulation, Tax and Compliance Hiring

A modern CFO is expected to understand far more than the numbers. In a regulated business, the finance director often sits on the board alongside the people who carry personal accountability to the Financial Conduct Authority, and is frequently one of them. In a business with any international reach, tax has moved from an annual compliance exercise to a standing item on the board agenda. And when a key compliance or tax role falls vacant, it is usually the CFO who is asked to find a replacement, quickly, in a market where good people have several options.

Generalist sources rarely help with any of this. Accounting news covers the standards, and recruitment sites cover vacancies, but very few resources join the two: what the rules now require, and who you need to hire to meet them. That is the gap four specialist sites from FD Capital Group were set up to fill. This article explains what each one does and when a CFO might use it.

Why CFOs need specialist resources

Three pressures have changed the CFO’s role over the past few years.

Personal regulatory accountability. The Senior Managers and Certification Regime applies to almost every firm regulated by the FCA. The Chief Finance function is itself a Senior Manager Function, and even where the CFO is not the approved person for compliance or financial crime, they sit on the board that must make sure those roles are filled with people the regulator will approve. A missing compliance officer or MLRO is not just a gap in the team; it is a regulatory problem.

Tax complexity. Larger groups are working through the global minimum tax rules under Pillar Two. Private sector businesses have taken on IR35 status decisions under the off-payroll working rules. Each change adds work to the tax function, and each raises the question of whether the business has the right tax people in house.

A tight market for specialist talent. Qualified compliance officers, MLROs and tax specialists are in demand, and the best of them can usually choose between several offers. Firms that understand the role, brief clearly and move quickly win; those that do not lose candidates to faster competitors.

Each of the four sites below addresses one part of that picture.

1. Regulatory Capital: FCA regulation and the people who carry it

Regulatory Capital is a compliance news and resources site for FCA-regulated firms and the senior managers who run them. Its distinguishing feature is that it covers both halves of regulation: what the rules require, and the people who are personally accountable for meeting them.

For a CFO, the most useful parts of the site are:

• News and analysis on the Senior Managers regime, financial crime, Consumer Duty, payments, consumer credit and cryptoassets, written with the board-level implications in mind.
• The SMF recruitment guide, which works through each Senior Manager Function in turn and explains what the role involves and who usually holds it.
• A resources page with links to official sources and a running digest of regulatory change.
• Practical articles such as whether to combine the compliance officer and MLRO roles and why more regulated firms are going fractional, both questions that land on a CFO’s desk when the budget for compliance is set.

When a firm is ready to make an appointment, Regulatory Capital points to SMF Capital, FD Capital Group’s dedicated Senior Manager Function recruiter, and to the regulated-firm services of the group’s other brands.

2. Tax Capital: tax careers and tax hiring

Tax Capital, whose motto is “tax doesn’t need to be taxing”, publishes insight on tax careers, tax teams and the tax hiring market. It is written by the tax recruitment practice at Accountancy Capital and covers practice and in-house tax across corporate tax, employment tax, VAT, international tax, personal tax, private client and tax investigations.

For a CFO, Tax Capital is most useful in three situations:

• Making a first in-house tax hire. Many growing businesses rely entirely on external advisers until compliance volumes, international expansion or a transaction make an in-house tax manager worthwhile. Tax Capital explains what that first role usually covers and how it differs from practice roles. Accountancy Capital’s in-house tax salary guide sets out what to budget.
• Reshaping an existing tax team. Articles such as why the corporate tax manager brief has changed since Pillar Two help a CFO update a job description before going to market.
• Understanding qualifications. The site explains how the Chartered Tax Adviser qualification, ATT and ACA or ACCA with tax differ, and which roles each suits.

When the business is ready to hire, Tax Capital hands over to the tax recruitment team at Accountancy Capital.

3. Broker Recruit: compliance hiring for broking firms

Broker Recruit is a specialist recruitment site for FCA-regulated broking firms: insurance brokers and MGAs, mortgage and consumer credit brokers, wealth and advice firms, and investment and stockbroking firms.

Broking firms face the same Senior Manager rules as much larger businesses, usually with a far smaller team and a finance function of one or two people. The most common need is a compliance officer and MLRO, often combined in one person holding the SMF16 and SMF17 functions, and often needed for only a day or two a week. The CFO or finance director of a broking firm is frequently the person tasked with finding them.

Broker Recruit is built around exactly that brief. It explains the roles in plain terms and leads straight to the services broking firms use most, including combined compliance officer and MLRO recruitment, part-time compliance officers for smaller firms and support for firms going through FCA authorisation. Searches that start on Broker Recruit are delivered by SMF Capital.

4. MLRO Capital: specialist MLRO and financial crime search

MLRO Capital focuses on a single appointment: the Money Laundering Reporting Officer, and the financial crime team around them.

Every business covered by the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 must appoint a nominated officer. In FCA-regulated firms that person usually holds the SMF17 function and carries personal responsibility for the firm’s anti-money laundering systems and controls, including the decision on whether to report suspicions to the National Crime Agency. When an MLRO resigns, or a firm applies for authorisation, the gap has to be filled quickly and with someone the regulator will approve.

MLRO Capital covers permanent, interim and fractional MLROs, deputy MLROs and financial crime leaders. It links to SMF Capital’s specialist pages on MLRO recruitment, fractional MLROs and urgent Senior Manager replacement, and its searches are also delivered by SMF Capital.

Which resource should a CFO use, and when?

Your situation	Start with
You need to understand a regulatory change and what it means for the board	Regulatory Capital
You are making a first in-house tax hire or rebuilding a tax team	Tax Capital
You are finance director of a broking firm that needs compliance cover	Broker Recruit
Your MLRO is leaving, or you need one for an authorisation application	MLRO Capital
You need a fractional, interim or permanent CFO or Finance Director	FD Capital

What CFOs should look for when hiring a compliance officer or MLRO

Whichever route a business takes, a few principles apply to every regulated compliance or financial crime hire.

• Match the experience to the permissions. A compliance officer who has worked in wealth management may not know consumer credit. Check that candidates have worked under the same or similar FCA permissions as your firm.
• Plan for approval time. Senior Manager appointments need FCA approval, and the regulator expects to see that the candidate is fit and proper. Build that time into the plan, and consider interim cover if the post will otherwise be empty.
• Be realistic about time commitment. Many smaller firms do not need a full-time compliance officer or MLRO. A fractional arrangement of one or two days a week can give access to more experienced people than the budget for a full-time hire would allow.
• Check the register. The FCA Financial Services Register shows which functions a candidate currently holds or has held. It is a quick, useful check before interview.
• Think about the team, not just the role. An MLRO needs systems, data and people to do the job well. A CFO who budgets for the controls as well as the salary gives the appointment a better chance of success.

Part of one network

The four sites are run by FD Capital Group, which also runs five recruitment brands: FD Capital for CFOs and Finance Directors, Exec Capital for the wider C-suite, NED Capital for non-executive directors and chairs, Accountancy Capital for qualified finance and tax, and SMF Capital for FCA Senior Manager Functions. Every enquiry that starts on one of the specialist sites is handled by one of these brands, so a CFO who finds the group through Regulatory Capital or MLRO Capital has access to the same consultants and the same shared candidate network as one who comes to a brand directly.

For an overview of all four sites, see FD Capital Group’s specialist sites page.