Financial Services
recruitment.

Financial Services recruitment

Hexford’s Financial Services practice covers risk, compliance, audit, finance, and operations hiring across banks, asset managers, insurers, and fintechs. We work across the senior end of the market — from VP through to MD and partner-level appointments.

Our consultants are deep in their markets. Priya Shah, who leads the practice, spent eight years in second-line compliance at a tier-one investment bank before moving into recruitment. That kind of domain depth changes the conversations we have on both sides of a search.

Where we focus

We are most active in three areas. First, compliance and regulatory — senior compliance officers, MLROs, CCOs, and the heads of regulatory affairs in firms where the role is genuinely senior and the regulatory environment is genuinely demanding. Second, risk — credit, market, operational, and enterprise risk leadership for banks, asset managers, and insurers. Third, finance — CFOs, FDs, and senior finance leadership in financial services businesses where finance is more than back-office accounting.

We also work on audit (internal and external) and on operations leadership in firms where operations is a strategic discipline rather than a cost centre.

How we work

For senior compliance and risk briefs we typically work on a retained or partially-retained basis. The depth of search required at this level is meaningful, and the engagement structure needs to reflect that. We are equally comfortable with contingent searches for established, well-defined roles where we can deliver inside a defined timeframe.

Our typical retained process runs eight to twelve weeks. We begin with a structured kick-off to confirm the brief — including the regulatory context, the team dynamics, and the political realities of the role. We run targeted outreach rather than database trawls. We present curated shortlists with substantive briefing notes that go beyond CV summaries.

Who to talk to

Priya Shah leads the Financial Services practice from our London office. For any senior FS brief — risk, compliance, finance, audit, or operations — Priya is the right first conversation.