2017 Compliance Salary Survey Guide

Compliance salaries across AML, control room, trade surveillance, regulatory compliance, general compliance, advisory compliance and more.

Recent levels of hiring in compliance and control have outpaced the recruitment of front office revenue generating staff in Asia. At a rate of 53 regulatory changes everyday in Asia alone, financial firms are increasing their expenditures to cater for the growing workload. These changes added US$ 50 million to compliance costs of financial companies in Asia last year, according to data from Thomson Reuters. 

Compliance Salaries

Role	Analyst	Associate / AVP	VP / SVP	Executive Director	Managing Director
Head of Compliance	*	*	*	125k - 170k	183k+
Regulatory Compliance	25k - 40k	40k - 70k	75k - 125k	130k - 165k	180k+
AML	25k - 42k	42k - 70k	75k - 135k	140k - 165k	180k+
Product Specific Advisory	25k - 42k	42k - 70k	75k - 135k	140k - 165k	180k+
General Compliance	15k - 35k	40k - 70k	75k - 100k	110k - 130k	140k+
IBD / Research	20k - 35k	40k - 70k	75k - 110k	120k - 150k	160k+
Control Room	15k - 35k	40k - 70k	75k - 110k	110k - 140k	150k+
Monitoring / Surveillance	15k - 35k	40k - 70k	70k - 108k	110k - 120k	130k+
Private Banking Compliance	15k - 35k	40k - 70k	75k - 110k	120k - 160k	170k+
Buy - Side Compliance	15k - 35k	40k - 70k	75k - 110k	120k - 140k	150k+
Tax Compliance	25k - 35k	40k - 70k	75k - 108k	110k - 120k	130k+
Banking Lawyer	50k - 80k	80k - 100k	108k - 140k	140k - 180k	183k+

* Roles do not typically exist at these levels
Note: Monthly salaries in HKD

Commentary on Compliance Roles and Remuneration in Hong Kong for 2017

There has been an increase in compliance-related jobs across financial technology (FinTech). This follows discussions surrounding the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) putting in place additional headcount requirements. Hong Kong is also very much up and coming in terms of the growth of compliance across FinTech and is currently in competition with Singapore to become a global FinTech hub. FinTech compliance professionals are required to have strong HKMA knowledge and experience.

Across investment banking, we continue to see recruitment activities in Regulatory Compliance, Financial Crime Compliance, KYC-AML roles, Equities and FICC Compliance roles. Retail banking, Private Banking and Commercial Banking compliance roles are still quite active with a number of clients requesting for HKMA regulatory related experiences.

We foresee mainly replacement roles across compliance for 2017 as our clients continue to outsource some of the operational compliance function to countries like India, Malaysia and the Philippines. However, there will be incremental increase in roles across growth areas, such as FinTech. As always, there will not be much movement in the market until bonuses are paid out in the first quarter of 2017. Compliance professionals are well aware of the current dip in the market and will have expectations for basic salary increments of 15-20% for lateral moves.