October 2025 marked a decisive period for hiring across the UK financial services sector, with regional and functional trends revealing how digital transformation, regulation, and geopolitics continue to reshape workforce priorities.

From London’s insurers to Scotland’s fintech ecosystem and the North West’s risk and compliance hubs, recruitment momentum is shifting towards technical, data-driven and regulatory disciplines that underpin the sector’s long-term stability.

Then looking ahead, will the interplay between regulation, AI adoption and geopolitical risk continue to drive recruitment patterns into 2026?

Well here at Sanderson, we always have our finger on the pulse of the latest changes in the market so that we can help you better understand how new trends might impact your hiring plans and then support you to turn these into opportunities when it comes to your financial services recruitment.

So, with that in mind, we’re pleased to have produced this new Report with VacancySoft that sums up the latest trends we’ve been seeing in the UK Financial Services market during October.

Have a sneak peek at some of the highlights below and scroll down to grab your copy!

London Market Trend Highlights

• IT vacancies have risen 11% year on year reflecting renewed investment in digital transformation.
• Insurers are prioritising digital resilience, automation and data-centric decision making rather than cyclical hiring.
• IT management roles encompassing change, projects and transformation have overtaken traditional broking vacancies for the first time with IT security vacancies projected to be 20.9% higher than 2024.

North West Market Trend Highlights

• Hiring has gathered significant pace banking.
• Demand for credit risk specialists is spiking with vacancies here now 42% above 2024 levels.
• Operational roles have risen by 21% during the first 9 months of 2025 with financial crime vacancies already exceeding last years total.

Scotland Market Trend Highlights

• Fintech hiring has accelerated dramatically with vacancies already 84.8% higher than 2024.
• Banking is accounting for around 75-80% of Scotland’s total financial services vacancies.
• Total fintech vacancies in Scotland are up 50% year on year, with the country’s share of UK fintech hiring rising from 2.7% in 2023 to 4.4% in 2025.

If you would like a more detailed overview of these trends, including the latest market data, monthly vacancy totals and insight into the top job roles by sector, then please do download a copy of the full Report via the form below.

Have any further questions? Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, we’re well placed to help.

If you’re in the market to deliver real business value from your contingent workforce and are exploring the world of Managed Service Programmes (MSPs), you might be looking for a resource to help guide you through the process and to answer any questions on if this is the solution for you?

We hear you!

We recently sat down with Sanderson client Karl Whelpdale, a Strategic Procurement Lead with over 30 years’ experience in external workforce management and delivery of global MSP and contractor solutions to get his insights into first-time MSP deployment, why an MSP could be a good option to manage your contractors and advice on starting an MSP journey of your own.

Let’s dive in…

What challenges might arise if you’re managing a contingent workforce without an MSP?

Without an MSP in place, organisations may struggle with fragmented processes and limited visibility on their contractor population. You might face issues like different departments using their own suppliers, inconsistent rates, poor compliance and even a risk around IR35. Not to mention onboarding delays, a significant manual effort for HR, Finance, and Procurement and then ultimately find it difficult to control costs, manage risk, or plan strategically thanks to the lack of a unified solution.

What might trigger a business to consider implementing an MSP for the first time?

Typically, this can be a combination of pain points. Think spiralling contractor costs, audit or compliance issues, and overworked internal teams. Or sometimes it’s as simple as needing access to talent at speed, especially in competitive markets. A well-designed MSP can introduce the control, transparency and agility that’s needed when you want to scale your business.

What are the key stages in successfully deploying an MSP?

You can break this down into four simple steps. First up, start with discovery. Understand the current state of your contingent workforce, map your stakeholders and gather data. Secondly, look at design. Define what success looks like to your business, choose your supplier model and build a governance framework. Thirdly, build and test. Look at how you can integrate systems, train users and prepare for go-live. And fourth and finally you’re at post-launch. Here it’s all about adoption and continuous improvement based on metrics and feedback.

What should you consider when selecting an MSP partner?

As well as having experience in delivering first-generation Managed Service Programmes, other key factors to consider in a talent partner are: a supplier who understands your business culture and industry, someone who’s happy to introduce you to current clients and invite you to meet their teams, whether the provider can offer the level of support you require and if the provider has the tech stacks you’re hoping to use.

Why is stakeholder engagement critical for MSP success?

Stakeholder engagement is critical for a smooth MSP implementation process. If you have early and ongoing buy-in from teams like HR, Legal, Finance (and especially your Hiring Managers) and you ensure they all understand “why” an MSP is critical for your business operations, you’re going to experience a far smoother implementation process.

What makes a first-time MSP deployment uniquely challenging?

When you’re starting from scratch it can be overwhelming when faced with no baseline data or established processes, let alone trying to piece together a raft of legacy suppliers. But if you set your expectations early and formulate a structured roll out plan, you’ll be on your way to smoothly deploying your first MSP with ease.

How can you measure the success of your MSP programme?

To effectively measure the success of your MSP programme, start with leading indicators like time-to-fill, shortlist ratios, and hiring manager satisfaction. Then move on to things like cost savings, compliance rates, tenure of contractors, and redeployment levels. Remember that success isn’t just about cost, it’s about quality, control, and speed to productivity.

What are the long-term benefits of implementing an MSP properly?

A properly implemented MSP will bring with it a whole range of benefits. From gaining full visibility and control of your external workforce, to reducing your risk, increasing your agility and positioning your business to being able to quickly adapt to market changes. You’ll also find that your organisation becomes more strategic, not just reactive as you’ll have built yourself a foundation for total talent strategies and the blending of your permanent, temporary and freelance workers.

Ready to get started? 

Sanderson are specialists in MSP deployment, so please do reach out to Karen Alexander, Sanderson Solutions Managing Director or contact our expert team if you would like a discussion around your MSP ambitions.

We’ve also created a video guide 

To help bring the world of MSP deployment to life, we’ve created an exclusive video guide so you can explore the practice of MSP in action.

Click here to watch the videos.

On Wednesday 15th October 2025 Sanderson’s Recruitment Services Managing Director Will Boney and Head of Operations & Organisational Change Anna Kramer sat down with PayStream CEO Tony Hodkinson to deliver a webinar discussing the upcoming tax legislation changes that are set to have an impact on many umbrella companies and across the whole recruitment industry.

Will, Karen and Tony chatted about what these changes mean and when they are due to come into force, how it affects you, and what we are doing here at Sanderson to ensure we’re compliant across the supply chain.

If you missed this webinar, you can still listen to the full recording where we cover the discussion points below, along with practical tips for businesses to navigate this period of change.

Watch the full recording of the Umbrella Reform Webinar here

The webinar covered key discussion points like:

• A clear overview of the tax legislation changes, including joint and several liability due in April 2026
• The impact of the Employment Rights Bill due in April 2027
• How this new legislation impacts you and how you can prepare for the change
• How you can protect yourself from liability and carry out appropriate due diligence, including insight into PaySteam’s own 6-Point Compliance Plan
• Exactly what we at Sanderson are doing to ensure compliance across the supply chain and to keep a smooth process for our clients and contractors
• An informative Q&A session with live and burning questions from attendees

Are you reviewing how your organisation currently manages your permanent hiring?

Do you like the sound of a full-service recruitment solution that takes accountability for your entire permanent hiring process?

An Enterprise RPO could be the solution for you!

Helping you with anything from:

• Providing more flexibility so you can easily respond to surges in hiring demand
• Reducing the administrative burden on your internal resources
• Getting access to the best talent on the market
• Supporting your employer branding and workforce succession planning

In our BRAND-NEW GUIDE we provide step by step information on how an Enterprise RPO could optimise how you approach permanent hiring, lay out exactly what it is, what the benefits are and how you can get started with a solution of your own.

You may have heard about the upcoming 2026 tax legislation changes that are set to have an impact on many umbrella companies and across the whole recruitment industry.

Please join us on a webinar where Sanderson and Paystream will share more about what these changes mean, how it affects you, and what we are doing here at Sanderson to ensure we’re compliant across the supply chain.

The webinar will provide:

• A clear overview of the tax legislation changes, including joint and several liability
• How this new legislation impacts you and how you can prepare for the change
• What we at Sanderson are doing to ensure compliance across the supply chain
• A dedicated Q&A session to answer your questions.

You’ll be hearing from Presenters: Tony Hodkinson (COO at Paystream), Will Boney (Recruitment Services Managing Director at Sanderson) and Anna Kramer (Head of Operations & Organisational Change at Sanderson)

The Details

• Date: Wednesday 15th October 2025
• Time: 12pm -12:45pm
• Location: Webinar via Microsoft Teams

Please click here to register your place.

We’re pleased to present Sanderson’s brand-new Hiring Trends Report focusing on Digital, Technology, Change and Transformation hiring in the Financial Services sector in H1 2025.

This much anticipated report provides an overview of how hiring during the first half of 2025 compared to the previous year, how demand was distributed across the UK, and which roles were most sought after across banking, insurance, life & pensions, and investment management.

The first half of 2025 has seen many businesses proceed with caution in their permanent and contract hiring thanks to persistent inflation, concerns over US tariffs, ongoing geopolitical instability and the impact of National Insurance Contributions changing.

However despite this climate, strategic priorities across the financial services sector are sustaining demand for high-quality digital, technology, change, and transformation professionals. We’re also seeing businesses increase their investment in digital and artificial intelligence platforms to modernise legacy infrastructure, meet evolving regulatory requirements and enhance their customer experience.

As we approach the latter half of the year, now may be the time to reassess your hiring strategies, enhance your understanding of emerging technologies and then address your skills gaps with the right blend of permanent or contractor talent.

This report, using data from VacancySoft and LinkedIn and reviewed by Sanderson’s market-leading experts, reflects on how these trends have shaped hiring throughout the Financial Services sector in H1 2025, as well as providing predictions on how it may evolve throughout the remainder of the year.

The last few months have been anything but quiet for the Financial Services market in London. From vacancies on the rise, investment in AI accelerating and actuarial booming, it can seem hard to keep track of the latest market activity.

But at Sanderson, we always have our finger on the pulse of the latest changes in the market so that we can help you better understand how any changes might impact your hiring plans and then support you to turn these market trends into opportunities when it comes to your recruitment.

So, with that in mind, we’ve teamed up with VacancySoft to sum up the latest trends we’ve been seeing in the London Financial Services market over the last few months in a handy Report.

Take a look at the sneak peek below and scroll down to grab your copy!

Vacancies

The finance sector in London is showing signs of life with vacancies rising by 17% since January, marking the busiest period since early 2023.

Insurance and Fintech

Insurance vacancies are easing with broking down so far in 2025. But will underwriting activity surpass last year’s volumes?

Artificial Intelligence

We’re seeing Allianz and lots of other insurance firms across the sector accelerating their investment into AI and transformation and working hard to automate their processes. And the impact this increased use of AI appears to be having on recruitment is that whilst there’s been a slowdown in hiring in many departments this year in the Insurance industry, IT vacancies are continuing to rise, with activity on track to be 15% higher than 2024 in London, and this is a trend we expect to continue.

Actuarial

London has recorded its fourth consecutive monthly increase in actuarial roles, so alongside our Report we sat down with Sanderson Senior Consultant and Actuarial specialist George Mohan for his views on what the state of play is looking like:

“Actuarial recruitment in life insurance has remained steady through 2025, underpinned by a busy market for bulk purchase annuities (BPA) and continuing regulatory developments. Solvency UK reforms have been shaping capital and risk management strategies, prompting insurers to strengthen their actuarial teams in areas such as reporting, balance sheet optimisation and capital modelling. Activity in BPA and reinsurance deals is also keeping demand stable for pricing and transaction specialists, while ongoing product innovation in retirement and protection markets supports a baseline level of hiring.

The profile of demand, however, is evolving. Employers are increasingly seeking actuaries who not only bring deep technical knowledge of life insurance liabilities and regulatory frameworks but can also apply data science, machine learning and advanced analytics. Skills in longevity risk modelling, asset-liability management and capital optimisation are in high demand, especially where firms are competing to execute on BPA opportunities at scale. Time-to-hire has lengthened for hybrid profiles, with firms prepared to pay salary premiums to secure candidates who can bridge traditional actuarial expertise with digital capability.

Flexibility remains another defining feature of the market. Hybrid and remote working are now standard expectations, particularly in technical and project-based roles. While graduate and trainee recruitment remains selective, fully qualified actuaries with strong transaction, modelling and regulatory skills are well positioned.

The overall picture is one of stability with sharper edges. Life insurers are maintaining headcount and investing in areas tied to Solvency UK, BPA transactions and longevity risk, while shifting their focus towards talent that can combine actuarial rigour with technology and data. The message is clear the market is steady, but the profile of demand is changing and those who adapt fastest will capture the best opportunities.”

Fintech

Fintech vacancies in London reached their highest monthly total in more than two years in July – will this trigger a war on talent?

Fixed term contracts

Have volatile markets and uncertainty over the upcoming employment bill meant that many employers are reluctant to expand their permanent headcount causing an incline in the number of FTCs in the market?

All in all, with banking vacancies rising, fintech attracting record funding, and insurers pivoting towards automation, a unifying trend has become clear.

Talent, particularly in technology and data, has become the currency of competition, dictating which firms will lead in the next phase of growth.

When you look at how your organisation manages your permanent hiring, would you rather your process had more flexibility, especially if you want to react to a surge in demand or quickly expand capacity as you launch new projects?

Perhaps your goals are to reduce the administrative burden on your internal resources by getting assistance with your candidate selection and onboarding and access industry-leading sector expertise whilst using the latest recruitment tech?

Or maybe you’d simply like to boost your employer brand, improve the quality of your hires and set up better processes for your workforce succession planning?

An Enterprise RPO could be the talent solution you’re looking for.

In this blog we’ll explain how an Enterprise RPO can optimise how you approach permanent hiring, lay out exactly what it is, what the benefits are and how you can get started with a solution of your own.

What is an Enterprise RPO?

This is a full-service recruitment solution that takes complete responsibility for all your permanent hiring. In a nutshell, anything you can think of when it comes to talent management, an Enterprise RPO can take care of it for you.

What are the benefits of an Enterprise RPO?

This is a solution that comes with a range of benefits that you and your organisation can benefit from. Other than getting an extension of your business that gives you total peace of mind that your recruitment is being taken care of (and giving time back to your Hiring Mangers to focus on BAU), an Enterprise RPO will also give you:

Access to the best external talent

With an Enterprise RPO partner, you’ll be given access to expertise in employer branding, talent analytics, candidate attraction and candidate sourcing capability. This means you’ll be better positioned to access the best network of local and national talent to help you set up the team of your dreams.

Internal Mobility

Enterprise RPO will advise your business on best practices to enhance your internal mobility. Design & development of internal careers sites, pathway programmes and even managing your internal recruitment processes all of which reduce attrition rates, retain knowledge and experience within your business, improve EVP and reduce external recruitment costs.

Flexibility and scalability

Looking for something that can seamlessly adapt to your strategic initiatives or that can respond to fluctuations in your hiring demand? An Enterprise RPO gives you complete flexibility allowing you to scale at pace or slow down your recruitment plans as you need to. If you’re a global or multi-office location, with an Enterprise RPO, you also have the flexibility to deploy this model to a specific region or even just one department.

Brand ambassador

This model will make sure you’re positioned as an employer of choice in your market. With an Enterprise RPO in place, you’ll be helped to not only define your candidate proposition, but then to amplify this across the market to ultimately build you a quality talent pipeline full of candidates who not only see you as the most desirable place to work, but that also align to your company values.

Better candidate experience

An Enterprise RPO will also work to help improve your candidate experience. Providing smoother processes, personalised touch points and regular check-ins with your perspective permanent employees to enhance their experience of communicating with you and ultimately improving offer acceptance rates.

Legal compliance

Keeping up with the latest compliance standards or legal requirements can be extremely time consuming for busy Hiring Managers. With an Enterprise RPO your talent partner takes total responsibility for things like pre-employment screening and is well versed in the necessary legislation to mitigate your risk and ensure you’re meeting relevant standards.

Access to technology

The HR technology landscape constantly changing, but with an Enterprise RPO you’ll be benefiting from access to innovative tools and new technology stacks, without having to commit to them in-house. You can even use this data to plan for the future and support your workforce planning.

Is an Enterprise RPO right for you?

When considering whether an Enterprise RPO is the right solution for you and your business, you just need to ask yourself, one question: Do you hire regularly?

If the answer is yes than an Enterprise RPO is absolutely for you.

No matter the size of your business, an Enterprise RPO can drastically improve the performance of your permanent hiring. If you look at a Sanderson Enterprise RPO solution for example, we’ve deployed these in global organisations with over 6000 employees and multiple offices, as well as to much smaller businesses with only around 1-200 employees.

Speaking to one of our clients, Head of Resourcing at a leading provider of business process services for the life and pensions industry after they embedded a Sanderson Enterprise RPO solution, they said:

“We commenced work with Sanderson to embed a new digital Total Talent Solution to manage our complex and varied resourcing and recruitment needs. The partnership approach, their knowledge of the market, insights and relationships have been critical in enabling us to concentrate on the business with the knowledge that we were in very safe hands.”

How to get started with an Enterprise RPO solution

As you begin the process of launching an Enterprise RPO solution, we’d recommend starting with 3 simple steps to ensure you set yourself up for success:

Set clear goals and objectives

Make sure you’ve properly laid out what you want to get out of your Enterprise RPO solution and how far into your business you want to embed it. Do you think you want to deploy across your entire organisation, or just a specific region or team? Is it improvements in candidate quality you’re after, or just reduced overheads and time to hire?

Gain stakeholder buy-in

Your Enterprise RPO partner will want to get stuck in and help you from the get-go, so make sure everyone in your team from your hiring managers to your directors are fully invested in the programme early on and know the benefits it will deliver so you can avoid any implementation resistance.

Do your research

This is a long-term recruitment solution, so selecting the right Enterprise RPO partner for you is vital. Have a think about whether they have experience in your industry, if they have the tech stacks you’re hoping to have access to and whether their culture and values align with your own.

Ready to get going?

At Sanderson, we look to partner with you long-term and relish taking on the responsibility for all your permanent hiring needs.

Whether you’re a business with complex talent acquisition requirements, have high volumes of recruitment or would simply rather avoid the fixed costs of managing recruitment internally, we can help create a tailored solution fit for your needs.

Get in touch with us today and let’s start your Enterprise RPO journey together.

The contingent hiring world is constantly changing, but during our work in this space recently we’ve spotted some trends.

In this blog we’ve summarised three trends that we’ve noticed in the contingent workforce world, giving you an overview of what the market is currently looking like so you can not only better understand it, but feel more prepared as you navigate your own contingent hiring plans.

So, what are the three trends we’ve noticed?

Trend 1: Total Talent Management

Increasingly, businesses are moving towards unified workforce strategies where all talent, regardless of contract type, is managed with equal importance and under one strategy or total talent solution.

Recent SIA (Staffing Industry Authority) data shows that 24% of companies with contingent workforce programmes already operate this way, and another 50% aim to follow in the next two years.

This approach can bring practical benefits like giving a clearer picture of skills across the board, better alignment between people and business goals, and the agility to flex resources as business needs change.

Ultimately, treating every member of the workforce as part of the core strategy isn’t a passing trend, it seems like it’s becoming essential for organisations that want to stay ahead.

Trend 2: Direct Sourcing

Direct sourcing is becoming a key strategy for organisations hiring contingent workers.

Rather than relying solely on third-party agencies, many companies are building and nurturing internal talent pools of contingent workers or working with partners to help facilitate this. According to the SIA, over one-third of businesses with established contingent workforce programmes are already using such direct sourcing, and another third plan to implement it soon.

The main advantages are quicker access to qualified workers, reduced costs by avoiding agency fees, and stronger employer branding through consistent engagement with talent pools and offering wider access to talent.

Trend 3: Recruit, Train & Deploy

The rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence in business operations has had a significant impact on entry-level hiring. In fact, recent data from Indeed indicates a 33% decrease in graduate job postings for 2025 compared to 2024, with experts noting that graduates are now facing the most challenging early-career job market since 2018.

In response to these trends, businesses are increasingly considering upskilling and reskilling initiatives. ‘Recruit, Train & Deploy’ workforce solutions are expected to become more prevalent, as they directly address skills gaps by preparing candidates for specific positions and accelerating time-to-productivity.

This recruitment model can also support long-term early careers workforce planning through early investment in emerging talent and help enhance diversity and inclusion by focusing on potential and aptitude.

Conclusion

If you’re interested in learning more about these trends or having a chat to learn more about our own Total Talent solutions and Direct Sourcing capabilities, then please do get in touch.

We’ve also put together some advice on best practices for managing your contingent workforce and steps you can take to better manage this talent pool, you can check this out here: Unlocking Success: 5 steps to better manage your contingent workforce.

If you’re working in the Financial Services industry, then it will have been hard to ignore the latest changes set to take shape across the UK pensions market.

And the changes are big. The entire UK pension landscape is now on the cusp of a transformation that will have far-reaching implications, not just for savers, but for the entire financial services sector.

In this blog we’ll lay out exactly what the proposed changes are and what they might mean for talent and hiring across the financial services sector.

Let’s go.

What is the UK Pension Reform?

Well, the 2025 Pension Investment Review and the Mansion House Accord have recently set ambitious targets designed to turbocharge investment in the UK economy and reshape how retirement savings are managed. This is set to have implications across many businesses and how they run and manage their employee pension pots.

What impact will the Pension Reform have?

Under the current system, by 2030 all multi-employer defined contribution schemes and Local Government Pension Scheme pools are expected to hit £25 billion in assets under management, which will create what’s known in the industry as “megafunds.”

However, the new Mansion House Accord (which has been signed by 17 of the UK’s largest pension providers), will commit these providers to invest 10% of default fund assets into private markets, with 5% earmarked for UK-based opportunities.

Collectively, this could unlock up to £50 billion for infrastructure, private equity, venture capital, and other “productive finance” in the UK by the end of the decade.

This change represents a fundamental shift in how UK pensions are managed, how capital flows through the UK economy and what skills the sector will need.

What changes might the UK see after the Pension Reform comes into effect?

Today, only a handful of UK pension providers manage default funds above the £25bn threshold. But by 2030, that number is set to double. We’ll see smaller schemes merge or wind down, and the defined contribution market will consolidate into a small number of heavyweight “megafunds” instead.

At the same time, pension portfolios are set to pivot.

Currently, only about 2% of defined contribution pension assets are invested in private markets and that figure is expected to quintuple to 10% by 2030 which is a dramatic shift into asset classes such as unlisted companies, infrastructure projects, and renewable energy.

Will the Reform cause demand for specific job roles and skills?

So, what exactly does this Pension Reform mean for talent and hiring?

Well, according to our data we’re predicting an increased demand for the following skills:

Change and Transformation

The drive to merge dozens of smaller schemes into megafunds will create a demand for specialist skills to manage this transformation. Providers will need Project Managers, Business Analysts, Actuaries, and Integration specialists who can navigate bulk transfers, align systems, and manage cultural integration across merged schemes.

Investments

Megafunds will need to manage increasingly complex portfolios. This will drive a surge in demand for Investment Managers to source, evaluate, and structure deals in private equity, venture capital, infrastructure, and private debt and Project Finance Specialists to analyse and fund major UK projects in transport, energy, and housing.

Governance, Risk & Compliance

Higher allocations to different asset classes will bring increased scrutiny. Pension funds will bolster their risk management and compliance functions, seeking professionals who can manage stress testing, oversee charge-cap compliance, and ensure investments stay aligned with fiduciary duties.

What challenges might there be for hiring?

While an increasing demand for certain skill sets might be a good thing for the market, these changes and surges do present additional challenges.

Mainly that these skills are already in high demand. Private markets analysts, actuaries, infrastructure finance specialists, and risk experts are among the most sought-after profiles in the financial services workforce today.

For HR and Talent teams, this comes at a time when they are already juggling business-as-usual hiring, driving internal mobility programmes, and spearheading reskilling initiatives to futureproof their organisations. Layer on top the ongoing need to assess how AI will reshape roles and processes, and it’s clear that talent strategies will need to be sharper, more creative, and more competitive than ever to secure the expertise required for this pensions-driven shift.

How we can help

At Sanderson, our team are well versed in navigating the often-murky waters of the UK financial services hiring market. Not only do we have access to some of the best talent pools in the UK to get you the skills you need and fast, but we understand the complexities of future-proofing your hiring strategies while trying to manage day-to-day talent management tasks.

If you’re looking for support, or would just like to chat to us about what the Pension Reform might mean for you and your business, then reach out to us today and let’s chat about how we can help.