Pay tops £1k per day for Solvency II actuaries

According to business and technology staffing firm Rethink Recruitment, actuaries on Solvency II projects are being awarded contracts worth £1100 per day - equivalent to around £275 000 a year.

Rethink said salaries have almost doubled from last year, when staff were earning £600 per day. The firm said that in-demand candidates - such as actuarial systems modellers - have received pay rises of over 20% in the last six months alone.

Candidates on contracts worth £900 per day are now receiving offers from rival firms of up to £1100 a day. Many candidates are also being offered bonuses of up to 25% just to stay in their current job for six months.

These bonuses, which are designed to stop rival insurers poaching key workers, are only given to the contractor on completion of the contract and usually amount to a five figure sum.

Guy Stubbing at Rethink explained: "The rush to comply with Solvency II is creating enormous demand for candidates with both actuarial and IT skills. These ‘hybrid' candidates, who are qualified actuaries with IT skills and experience in areas like risk modelling and reporting systems, are in very short supply. What we are seeing now is a bidding war, which will only intensify as the deadline draws nearer."

He added: "With retention bonuses becoming much more prevalent, it is becoming far harder for employers to poach staff from competitors."

The Solvency II regulations will impose new capital and risk management requirements. These will require insurers to update their internal risk models, databases and reporting systems - all of which will require extensive investment in IT.

Rethink said the shortage of qualified candidates has become so acute that insurers are increasingly having to sponsor non-EU workers to fill roles. Mr Stubbing said: "75% of the candidates we place are non-British. A lot are from the EU, but the shortage of IT people with experience in this area is forcing many insurers to recruit non-EU workers to fill key roles."

"Many insurers are now in a race against time to be ready for Solvency II, and the pool of suitable candidates is dwindling. We have heard of qualified staff in Australia being offered £10 000 relocation bonuses as a further inducement to bring them across."