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Regulation and compliance

Graduates working in regulatory and compliance roles ensure good practice across the industry and protect consumers. If you're an organised, adaptable graduate with an analytical mindset and a keen eye for detail, this could be the area for you.

This area is all about ensuring that finance organisations act as they should. Graduates wishing to start careers in this area can either work for the UK regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), or for the regulated, those who comply with the regulations. However, once you have some experience, it is easy to transfer between working in a compliance role and working for the FSA.

Changes to the Financial Services Authority finalised 2013

With the coalition government has come change for the FSA. By the end of 2013, it will be split into two to create the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).

About graduate jobs with the UK financial regulator: the FSA’s graduate schemes

Graduates can enter via a number of structured, rotational graduate schemes.

Graduates working in regulation and compliance learn about all areas of a business.

For the first few years of their career graduates will usually gain a broad overview of the sector before specialising. Later on, employees may move into management or choose to become a specialist in a particular area.

About graduate jobs in compliance

Compliance roles involve taking care of an organisation’s financial conduct (ensuring it complies with regulations and principles) and of its reporting (providing financial information to the regulator). Financial organisations will have at least one member of staff dedicated to compliance functions, depending on its size.

Graduates can therefore find compliance work with all types of finance organisations. There are some dedicated graduate schemes in compliance available, particularly with investment banks. Some risk management roles may also contain elements of compliance work. However, you’ll find that the most common graduate job role in compliance is that of trainee auditor, which involves either working in-house scrutinising key areas of the business (known as internal auditing) or scrutinising another company’s business (this is known as external auditing and is a legal requirement). Professional services and accountancy firms are among those who provide external services for other firms.

Graduates in compliance work are typically given a particular product area to review, and usually work in a team, often including a manager and a previous graduate.

What degree background and skills do I need to work at the FSA and in compliance roles?

Any degree background is acceptable, although some ‘compliance employers’ may state a preference for a business-related degree.

Skills and attributes needed to work in regulation and compliance include:

  • integrity: in fact it’s one of the FSA’s chief executive’s must-have qualities for graduate recruits
  • analytical skills
  • numeracy
  • client-facing skills, including diplomacy (especially for external auditing) and assertiveness (especially when working for the FSA).

How to get hired by these regulation and compliance/auditing graduate employers

Independent reports on applying to, impressing and getting hired at:

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