What the FCA Expects From Your Finance Function
The FCA’s supervisory engagement with smaller regulated firms — wealth managers, DFMs, boutique investment firms, insurance intermediaries — is not the dramatic event the word ‘investigation’ implies. Most FC-level FCA contact is routine, bureaucratic and entirely manageable. But it is not something the FC at …
We Placed a DFM FC Last Month: What Made the Difference
In March 2026 we placed a Financial Controller at a discretionary fund manager running approximately £600 million of assets under management. The search ran for six weeks. We shortlisted three candidates. The one who got the role was not the candidate with the most impressive …
Five Things Fintech FCs Know About PSR Safeguarding
There is a specific moment in most fintech FC interviews when a commercial FC candidate — experienced, articulate, technically strong — starts to lose the brief. It is not usually the question about VC board packs. It is not the IFRS 15 SaaS revenue recognition …
Wealth Manager FC vs Commercial FC
Ask most finance professionals to describe the Financial Controller role and they will give you a broadly consistent answer: month-end close, management accounts, board pack, audit relationship, cash management. That answer is accurate. It is also completely inadequate preparation for the FC role at a …
How to Brief a Senior Finance Search That Completes First Time
The single most consistent predictor of whether a senior finance search completes successfully is not the strength of the candidate market, the seniority of the role or the budget available. It is the quality of the brief. A well-constructed brief — specific about scope, accurate …
ACA vs ACCA vs CIMA: Which Qualification for In-House Finance?
The question of whether to pursue the ACA, the ACCA or the CIMA qualification is one that most finance students face at the beginning of their training, with limited information about which qualification will matter most to employers in the in-house finance roles they are …
PE-Backed Finance Director: What PE Investors Actually Expect
The Finance Director role at a PE-backed business is not simply a more demanding version of the Finance Director role at an owner-managed business. It is a qualitatively different role in several important dimensions — and the FD who arrives at their first PE-backed appointment …
How to Hire Your First Financial Controller: A Complete Guide
For most growing businesses, the appointment of the first in-house Financial Controller is the most important finance team decision they will ever make. Get it right — the right person, the right scope, the right salary, appointed at the right time with the right onboarding …
What to Pay Your Financial Controller in 2026: An Employer Guide
The most common Financial Controller search failure in the UK mid-market is not a failure to find the right candidate. It is a failure to price the role correctly before going to market. The business that sets the FC salary at the right market rate …
Finance Business Partner vs Management Accountant: Which Path?
“Finance Business Partner vs Management Accountant” is one of the most-searched career questions in UK qualified finance, and one of the least satisfactorily answered. Most responses describe the FBP as “more forward-looking” and the Management Accountant as “more historical”, and leave it at that. That …
