Salaries in the UAE’s financial services industry are on the up, particularly in the virtual assets space, with compensation for regulated functions like compliance, risk management, and senior executive officers (SEOs) seeing the largest jumps.
Cordell Partners has just released its Salary Benchmarking Report, which reveals big shifts in the UAE talent market. Key factors, including volatility, regulatory pressure and growing institutional maturity, have combined to make the local talent market more competitive than ever.
Something that became immediately apparent during our research is that the higher compensations for roles typically exist within the virtual assets sphere – particularly for SEOs and other governance-heavy roles. This mainly boils down to the fact that the risk appetite to work in these roles at these firms is greater. The space is more volatile and more unpredictable.
Just look at the recent events at firms like decentralised finance (DeFi) platform Mantra, which saw its native token OM crash and lose around 90 per cent of its value. The digital asset space is still maturing, and instability still exists. This volatility impacts people’s decisions. Talent knows that tenure in these roles may be shorter than in a bank or fund, so the salary has to be much higher to make it worth the risk. Add that to the tax-free environment of the UAE, and the financial upside becomes even more appealing for experienced talent.
The rise of regulation (and related salaries)
Another standout theme this year is the rising importance of regulated roles like independent non-executive directors (iNEDs) and SEOs. Regulators, including the DIFC, ADGM and VARA, are demanding more from firms. For example, the DIFC now often requires at least two iNEDs per regulated entity.
At Cordell Partners, we’ve seen the impact of this firsthand, seeing a sudden jump in iNEDs across firms. Regulators are increasingly on the ground, enforcing standards with greater intensity. This enhanced level of scrutiny is impacting hiring. We’ve seen average SEO salaries increase by around eight and 12 per cent over the last year alone. While some of that increase is to keep up with inflation, this rise is largely driven by the greater demand for talent with local experience who have already been authorised by local regulators, and have proven track records.
In the past, we’ve seen these roles largely outsourced, or companies appointing a risk taker – a sales professional or portfolio manager – double-hatting and acting as the SEO at the same time. Unsurprisingly, the regulators don’t like that, and are pushing for people in legal, compliance or finance operations to act as SEOs. These specialised professionals are now commanding a higher salary as a result of that shift.
At the same time, when we’ve mandated on iNEDs, we’ve seen a trend where firms’ regulators prefer candidates are already based in the UAE, or someone who has worked at a regulator previously. With this, the specifics are getting tighter and tighter for iNEDs.
Rising competition
Last week, the DFSA published its 2024 Annual Report, revealing that it granted 154 new firms licences. What does that mean for the talent in the region? Well, 154 newly regulated entities need to fill the role of money laundering reporting officer (MLRO), risk officer, and finance officer. While regulated firms have always needed to fill these roles, the number of firms requiring them is going up by larger amounts every year.
This obviously has a knock-on effect, because there simply aren’t enough locally authorised candidates to meet this rising demand. This creates the current situation where the top compliance and risk candidates receive multiple offers at the same time. We’ve seen these professionals making moves to other firms for salary jumps as small as AED2000 a month (equating to a little over $6,000 per annum). This kind of move happens regularly in this region, because so many people have the mindset that they won’t reside here forever, and want to maximise their tax-free income while they’re here.
Obviously, this leaves a lot of unhappy clients. For every professional receiving three simultaneous offers, that leaves at least two firms that still need to fill those positions – and are left under pressure by the regulators.
Bumping up bonuses
In response, firms are turning to bonuses to try and retain their key staff. While staff used to receive around two to three months’ worth of salary as a bonus, many UAE firms are significantly bumping them up, with some reaching as much as 100 per cent of base salary, especially in back-office roles that were historically overlooked. This is a clear indicator of how much value is placed on regulatory and governance roles.
By offering these huge bonuses, firms hope they can successfully retain their staff. Losing their head of compliance or CFO can set a firm back by months – not just in time, but in exposure to regulatory scrutiny.
To solve these challenges, businesses often turn to consultancies. But we’ve also observed high turnover within these consultancies. One investment firm cycled through five different consultants in just 18 months. This can have a hugely negative impact. A regulated fund having to retrain a compliance professional every few months not only looks poor, but also introduces risk.
This trend is occurring because many consultants are leaving for in-house roles, attracted by better pay, lower stress and more stability. Some consultancies are overstretching staff across five or six clients, making it impossible for them to deliver to the standard required.
Scouting global talent
With the issue of a small talent pool exacerbated by the growth of these financial industries in the UAE, there has to be a change. Recognising this, the regulators are now allowing more firms to hire professionals from other geographies with similar regulators – like ASIC in Australia or the FCA in the UK – and train them up.
The time taken to get someone authorised and registered has also come down significantly since 12 months ago. Now, if you move quickly, get them trained up, and get them on the register, it can be as fast as one to two months, whereas historically, that process could take four to six months.
In you’re hiring for regulated functions in fintech or virtual assets in the UAE, you need to move fast, pay competitively and think globally. Because competition is only increasing, and the cost of getting it wrong is going up.
