The Compliance Recruitment Agency Checklist: What Regulated Firms Should Be Asking
The Compliance Recruitment Agency Checklist: What Regulated Firms Should Be Asking Choosing the right compliance recruitment agency is one of those decisions that looks straightforward until it goes wrong. By the time a search has produced three rounds of unsuitable candidates, burned through ten weeks …
Why Your Compliance Hire Keeps Falling Through (And What to Do About It)
Why Your Compliance Hire Keeps Falling Through (And What to Do About It) If you have been trying to fill a compliance role for longer than you expected — and the search keeps stalling, candidates keep withdrawing, or offers keep getting turned down — you …
How long does FCA SMF approval actually take? A realistic timeline for regulated firm boards
The Gap Between the Statutory Position and Reality The FCA’s statutory position on SMF approval timelines is reasonably well known: the regulator has three months from receipt of a complete Form A application to reach a decision. Most boards treat this as the planning figure. …
How the FCA Form A approval process works: a practical guide for regulated firm boards
What Form A Is and Why It Matters Every individual appointed to a Senior Management Function at an FCA-regulated firm must receive FCA individual pre-approval before taking up their role. That approval is requested through Form A — the standard notification form submitted via the …
When does a firm need a CFO? When does a firm need a Finance Director?
By Adrian Lawrence FCA, Founder, Exec Capital A specific question that comes up frequently in senior finance hiring conversations: should the firm be hiring a CFO or a Finance Director? The two titles are sometimes used interchangeably and sometimes with substantively different meaning, and the …
What’s the realistic timeline for a senior executive search?
By Adrian Lawrence FCA, Founder, Exec Capital A practical question that comes up early in most senior search conversations: how long does the search actually take from start to finish? The honest answer is that a substantive senior search runs 12-18 weeks from formal mandate …
The fractional-versus-permanent decision is harder than it looks
UK senior hiring decisions increasingly start with a question firms didn’t routinely ask five years ago: should this be a fractional appointment, an interim, or a permanent hire? The fractional senior hiring market has matured substantially in the UK over the past decade — particularly …
What boards keep getting wrong about NED diversity
By Adrian Lawrence FCA, Founder, Exec Capital UK board diversity has improved substantially over the past decade — the FTSE 350 looks materially different from how it looked in 2015 — and the substantive arguments for diverse boards are now well-rehearsed. What’s also true is …
How SMCR is changing the senior appointment timetable for FCA-regulated firms
By Adrian Lawrence FCA, Founder, Exec Capital Boards at FCA-regulated firms approaching senior appointments often underestimate the timetable. The substantive search work — brief, market mapping, candidate engagement, assessment, offer — proceeds on a familiar calendar. The Form A submission, fitness and propriety assessment and …
The compensation trend that’s quietly reshaping UK senior hiring in 2026
By Adrian Lawrence FCA, Founder, Exec Capital There’s a structural shift in UK senior compensation that doesn’t get the attention it warrants. Headline base salaries at the senior end have moved within recognisable bands over the past three years; the underlying mix of cash, deferred …
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