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Skills shortage faced by banks and financial institutions provides new opportunities

As the financial services industry navigates complex new regulations and heightened regulatory oversight, the demand for operational risk professionals has surged by 72% – and there is an urgency to fill these vacancies.

Australian banks are struggling to fill vacancies for both front office risk professionals and centralised operations-risk teams roles, with the effect of the skills shortage also being experienced by foreign banks.

With risk assurance being a key focus of the current climate, firms continue to compete for talent especially for professionals in the three to six year experience level. According to recruitment agency Robert Walters, this is due to the reduced graduate hiring in Australia between 2008 and 2011. And with talent being hard to come by, banks are hiring overseas skilled professionals to combat the genuine skills shortage.

The continuing demand for compliance professionals also includes the areas of financial crime, regulatory projects, technology risk and enterprise-wide risk, according to global recruitment firm Randstad.

Boosting governance standards in technology has resulted in a demand for highly-skilled overseas candidates and it is expected that job growth will continue in this market.

The Australian Government’s launch of the Global Talent Scheme pilot is a timely solution to provide Australian businesses with easier access to the world’s highly-skilled workers.

Accessed under the Temporary Skill Shortage Visa (Subclass 482) Programme, and running for 12 months from 1 July 2018, the introduction of the Global Talent Scheme will allow employers to access highly-skilled overseas workers for specialised positions, where there are no suitable Australians to fill the vacancies. It has been designed to be particularly supportive of innovative and start-up businesses, aiming to facilitate growth, skills transfer and job creation as well as provide the cutting-edge skills that Australia needs to compete globally.

If you are a highly-skilled overseas worker or an Australian business seeking to fill a specialised position, then there may be a migration solution that benefits both parties.

“The content of this publication is for reference purposes only. It is current at the date of publication. This content does not constitute legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. Legal advice about your specific circumstances should always be obtained before taking any action based on this publication.”
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