Think product control and compliance are humdrum middle-office functions with an equally mundane employment market? Think again.

PC professionals are in fact serial job hoppers, while senior compliance specialists are in such short supply that they can still command large pay hikes.

“Employers are very selective about who they hire in product control. Many current roles are for senior, strategic positions and banks want a balance of strong technical and interpersonal skills,” says Sonia Fuller, director of KS Consulting.

So it's not surprising that there's a skills shortage in Singapore, Asia’s main PC hub for firms like Credit Suisse, Barclays and Standard Chartered.

"There are never enough good product controllers. In some cases, banks have let go the worst 10 per cent of performers, which doesn’t mean there are more good candidates out there. It's still just as hard to find people,” adds Fuller.

Another reason for the lack of senior (AVP and above) local talent is that product controllers frequently change their jobs, which means it takes a long time for them to reach that level.

“We still have to go to London and Hong Kong for a lot of senior roles where candidates have progressed their careers with one of two organisations, instead of job hopping for a few extra dollars.”

Patrick Tan, a director at Global Search Partners, says banks also find it difficult to source compliance professionals because the function is becoming more specialised and the talent pools are therefore smaller.

For compliance jobs within a particular part of a bank – wholesale, brokerage, private banking, consumer etc – firms are increasingly demanding sector-specific experience.

Tan explains why: “Consumer banking compliance officers wouldn’t have the same depth of knowledge of the brokerage sector. They wouldn’t have worked on a trading floor or know SGX laws. And money-laundering detection in private banking is very different to how it is in wholesale.”

Specialisation is becoming more common for most mid to senior-level jobs, says Tan. It’s only when you reach the very top, and oversee the entire compliance function, that you need to understand the full spectrum of compliance.

And as banks get more demanding about who they hire, the successful few candidates can still demand boom-era salary increments of 10 to 20 per cent.

“You have to pay for good talent. And because compliance is a fairly secure job, people are asking ‘why should I move for the same salary?’,” adds Tan.