Recruitment for FCA Regulated Firms

Financial Conduct Authority regulated businesses face a hiring challenge that most generalist recruiters are not equipped to address. The roles that matter most — Chief Risk Officer, Finance Director, AMLRO, Head of Compliance — require candidates who understand the FCA’s regulatory framework, can operate under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, and have direct experience of what it means to be a named individual accountable to a regulator. Finding those people through a generalist search process is slow, expensive, and frequently unsuccessful.

FD Capital specialises in senior finance and risk recruitment for FCA regulated firms across the UK. Our network includes Finance Directors, CFOs, and risk professionals with hands-on experience in FCA-regulated environments — from growth-stage fintechs seeking initial authorisation to large international groups managing complex ongoing compliance obligations. We place on a fractional, interim, and permanent basis depending on what the business and the regulatory brief requires.

We have placed fractional Chief Risk Officers into FCA regulated businesses at both ends of the market — including a £20m firm at an early stage of building its risk framework, and a large international group requiring board-level risk oversight. That practical experience shapes how we approach every brief in this sector.

The Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR) has fundamentally changed individual accountability in financial services. Named Senior Managers carry personal regulatory obligations — for the firm’s risk framework, its financial crime controls, its compliance function. Hiring the wrong person into one of these roles is not simply a performance problem; it is a regulatory exposure. This means the brief is always more specific than it appears on the surface, and the assessment process needs to reflect that.

The FCA’s authorisation process adds another dimension for firms seeking or maintaining permission. Whether a business needs a named MLRO for an authorisation application, a CRO to satisfy a skilled persons review, or a CFO with FCA reporting experience for a supervisory visit, the hiring trigger is usually urgent and the specification is non-negotiable. Speed of delivery matters as much as quality of candidate.

FD Capital’s background in senior finance recruitment means we understand both sides of this brief — the commercial and strategic requirements of the role, and the regulatory competency profile that the FCA expects. The FCA’s guidance on SMCR sets out the accountability framework within which all our regulated sector appointments are made

The following roles represent the most common hiring briefs we receive from FCA authorised and regulated businesses. Each carries specific regulatory expectations that we factor into every search.

Chief Risk Officer (CRO)

The CRO is typically a named Senior Manager under SMCR, accountable to the board for the firm’s enterprise risk framework. For regulated firms, this is not a generalist management role — it requires direct experience of FCA supervisory relationships, risk appetite frameworks appropriate to the firm’s permissions, and the ability to represent the firm’s risk position to the regulator when required.

We place fractional and interim CROs for regulated firms that need board-level risk oversight without a full-time appointment. This is increasingly common in fintech and lending businesses where the CRO function is required for authorisation or ongoing supervision but the firm size does not justify a permanent hire. See our Chief Risk Officer recruitment and Fractional Chief Risk Officer recruitment pages for further detail.

Chief Financial Officer and Finance Director

For most FCA regulated firms, the CFO or Finance Director carries significant regulatory responsibility — FCA reporting, regulatory capital calculations, managing the relationship with external auditors on regulated matters, and increasingly acting as a named Senior Manager. The profile required is materially different from a CFO in an unregulated business, and the candidate pool is correspondingly smaller.

We recruit fractional CFOs, interim CFOs, Finance Directors, and interim Finance Directors with specific FCA regulated sector experience. Our network includes candidates who have served as named individuals under SMCR and can demonstrate that track record to a regulator.

Anti-Money Laundering Reporting Officer (AMLRO) and MLRO

The AMLRO is a named role under FCA authorisation requirements for firms within scope of the Money Laundering Regulations. For businesses seeking FCA authorisation — particularly in community lending, payment services, and consumer credit — appointing a credible AMLRO is a prerequisite for the application. The role carries responsibility for AML/CTF policy, customer due diligence frameworks, SAR reporting, and direct liaison with the FCA on financial crime matters.

We recruit AMLRO and MLRO candidates on a fractional and interim basis, which is the appropriate model for most growth-stage regulated businesses. A fractional AMLRO provides the named individual the FCA requires, with the practical experience to build and operate the compliance framework, at a cost structure appropriate to the firm’s stage. See our risk and compliance recruitment page for further detail.

Head of Compliance

The Head of Compliance manages the day-to-day regulatory relationship, oversees the internal compliance monitoring programme, and ensures the firm meets its ongoing FCA obligations. For firms under the SMCR, this role is frequently a Certified Function or Senior Management Function depending on the firm’s structure and permissions. We recruit Heads of Compliance on a permanent, interim, and fractional basis for FCA regulated firms across financial services, fintech, lending, and asset management.

Company Secretary

FCA regulated firms with board-level governance requirements increasingly need a dedicated or fractional Company Secretary to manage board processes, regulatory submissions, and governance documentation. For listed or near-listed regulated businesses, this is a named role with direct FCA interface. We recruit Company Secretaries and Fractional Company Secretaries for regulated businesses at all stages.

Head of Regulatory Reporting

Accurate and timely FCA regulatory reporting is a direct compliance obligation. For firms with complex permissions or significant balance sheet positions, a dedicated Head of Regulatory Reporting provides the specialist capability to manage COREP, FINREP, and FCA supervisory returns. We place this role on both a permanent and interim basis for regulated firms where the regulatory reporting burden has grown beyond what the CFO function can absorb.

Our regulated sector recruitment covers the full range of FCA authorised business types where senior finance and risk hiring is most active:

• Fintech and payments businesses — EMIs, PIs, and firms with FCA authorisation for innovation-led financial services
• Consumer credit and lending — including community lenders, peer-to-peer platforms, and specialist credit firms
• Asset management and investment management — regulated investment firms, fund managers, and wealth managers
• Insurance and insurtech — FCA regulated insurers, MGAs, and insurance intermediaries
• Financial advisory and wealth management — FCA authorised advisory businesses at growth and institutional scale
• Banking and deposit-taking — challenger banks, specialist lenders, and international banking groups with UK operations

Most recruitment agencies treat a regulated business brief the same as any other senior hire. We do not. Every search we conduct for an FCA regulated firm is assessed first for what the regulator requires, then for what the business needs commercially, and then for what the candidate profile looks like in practice. Those three things are not always the same, and getting all three right is what separates a successful regulated sector appointment from one that creates problems further down the line.

Our fractional and interim model is particularly well suited to the regulated sector. Most growth-stage regulated firms do not need a full-time CRO, AMLRO, or Company Secretary — they need a credible, experienced named individual who can perform the role at the level the FCA expects, on a cost structure that reflects the firm’s stage. We have placed these appointments successfully at firms ranging from early-stage authorisation applicants to large international regulated groups.

We work across risk and compliance recruitment, CFO recruitment, and Finance Director recruitment as an integrated practice, which means when a regulated firm brief crosses multiple functions — as it often does — we can address the whole picture rather than treating each hire in isolation.