Fintech Finance Recruitment UK

Fintech and payments businesses need qualified finance professionals who can move at the pace of the business, understand the financial model of a payments or technology-enabled financial services platform, and manage the regulatory reporting that FCA authorisation places on the finance function. Finding Finance Managers, Financial Controllers and FP&A Managers who combine a strong accounting qualification with genuine fintech and payments experience is one of the most consistently competitive recruitment challenges in the qualified finance market.

Accountancy Capital places Finance Managers, Financial Controllers, FP&A Managers, Financial Accountants and Regulatory Reporting specialists within fintech, payments, e-money institution and regulated technology businesses across the UK, typically in roles paying £50,000 and above. Our candidate network includes finance professionals who have built their careers inside growth-stage and scaling fintechs and who bring the combination of technical accounting depth, subscription and transaction-model understanding and regulatory awareness that these roles need. We work on permanent, interim and fractional hires, and we sit alongside the wider FCA-regulated firms practice within FD Capital Group. If you are hiring now, call 0204 553 8893.

What Makes Finance Work at a Fintech Different

Three factors set the finance function at an FCA-regulated fintech apart from an equivalent-sized technology business that is not regulated. Each one changes the profile of the person you should hire.

1. Regulatory capital and regulatory returns

E-money institutions (EMIs), payment institutions (PIs) and MiFID investment firms must hold minimum regulatory capital, calculated under their specific regulatory classification, and report their financial resources position to the FCA through periodic regulatory returns. Those returns are now submitted through the FCA’s RegData platform, which replaced the older GABRIEL system, and the underlying work is the same: an own funds calculation, a capital requirement calculation and a reconciliation back to the management accounts. A Finance Manager who has never prepared a capital adequacy return or calculated an own funds requirement will need significant time to build that capability. Our guide to regulatory capital in the management accounts explains how the two should connect.

2. Unit economics and the recurring revenue model

Most fintechs earn recurring revenue of some kind — transaction fees, subscription fees, interchange, FX margin or interest on balances — and that model needs its own reporting alongside the standard P&L and balance sheet. Investors and boards expect to see total payment volume (TPV), active users, revenue per user, take rate, churn, net revenue retention and CAC payback, and they expect those numbers to reconcile to the ledger. A Finance Manager who cannot produce these metrics and analyse them in the format investors expect will struggle with the FP&A side of the role, however strong their technical accounting. Our article on SaaS metrics for management accountants covers the core definitions.

3. Pace

Fintech finance functions are characterised by fast growth, rapid change and compressed timetables. Month-end close at a fast-growing fintech is often expected within three to five working days. The budget and forecast run alongside live product launches, new payment corridors and market expansion decisions. A Finance Manager who has only worked in stable businesses with relaxed close timetables will find the pace of a scaling fintech a significant adjustment, and it is worth testing for in interview.

The Finance Roles We Place in Fintech and Payments

Fintech finance teams tend to grow in a recognisable order. The first qualified hire is usually a Finance Manager or Financial Controller; FP&A, regulatory reporting and safeguarding specialists follow as volumes, investors and regulatory scope grow.

• Finance Manager or Financial Controller — owns the close, the audit, the regulatory returns and the cash position, and often the board pack too. See our page on Financial Controllers for fintech firms.
• FP&A Manager — builds the operating model, the unit economics, the budget and reforecast and the investor-facing KPI pack.
• Financial Accountant — statutory accounts, revenue recognition, technical papers and audit support as the group structure becomes more complex.
• Regulatory Reporting Manager — capital adequacy and other FCA returns, regulatory capital monitoring and, in investment firms, ICARA work.
• Safeguarding or CASS Accountant — daily safeguarding reconciliations, breach management and the evidence the safeguarding audit will ask for.

Fintech Finance Salaries and Day Rates

Salaries in fintech finance track the stage of the business as much as the title. The ranges below are typical for London-based roles; outside London, ranges are generally lower, and candidates with hands-on safeguarding or regulatory capital experience can command more.

For wider benchmarks see the FP&A Manager salary guide and the regulated firm finance salary guide. Our fees are agreed in writing before a search starts.

Fundraising, Investors and the Board Pack

For most venture-backed fintechs, the finance function’s most visible output is the monthly investor and board pack. It needs to tell the board where cash runway stands, how unit economics are moving, what is happening to the cost base as headcount grows and whether the regulatory capital position has enough headroom for the next phase of growth. During a funding round the same team builds the data room and reconciles every KPI in the deck back to the accounts.

That is why the FP&A Manager or FC who has been through a Series A or Series B is so sought after: they know what investors will ask, and they build the reporting so that the answers already exist. Our guides to building an investor-ready reporting pack and the FC’s role in fundraising due diligence go into more detail. The CFO who leads the raise itself is a search for our sister firm FD Capital.

Safeguarding and Reconciliations

Payment and e-money firms must safeguard the funds they receive from customers, keeping them segregated from the firm’s own money and reconciling them every business day. In practice that means daily reconciliations between customer balances and the safeguarding accounts, prompt resolution of breaks and a documented process the auditors and the FCA can follow. The FCA has strengthened its safeguarding expectations in recent years, including more frequent reporting and an annual safeguarding audit for many firms, so the volume and scrutiny of this work have increased.

Safeguarding is where hiring the wrong profile is most expensive. A strong commercial accountant without reconciliation discipline can leave a firm exposed to a safeguarding breach. We test candidates on real reconciliation scenarios and on how they have handled breaks. See safeguarding for payments and e-money firms, hiring a safeguarding accountant and five things fintech FCs know about safeguarding. Fintechs that hold client money under investment rules also have CASS obligations; our CASS accountant recruitment page covers that profile.

Scaling From Startup to Regulated Firm

The finance function a fintech needs changes sharply as it moves from a seed-stage product to an authorised firm. Before authorisation, a bookkeeper and an outsourced accountant are often enough. Once the firm is preparing an application, or is newly authorised, it needs someone in-house who can own the capital calculation, the safeguarding process, the regulatory returns and the audit, and who can explain all of them to the FCA and to investors.

The most common hiring mistake at this stage is defining the wrong seniority. Fintechs often hire their first finance professional at Finance Manager or FC level when the scope is genuinely closer to CFO — presenting to investors, managing the regulatory capital position, leading the audit — but where the budget does not stretch to CFO pay. A candidate labelled Finance Manager who is effectively the CFO needs to be paid for the actual scope, not the title, or they will leave once they realise it. A second mistake is over-weighting commercial agility and under-weighting technical depth, then discovering a year later that the hire cannot run the audit or produce statutory accounts without heavy external support. The right specification balances both. Our guides to hiring finance for a newly authorised firm and building a finance function in a regulated firm set out the typical sequence.

EMI and API Authorisation: The Finance Work

An application to become an authorised electronic money institution or authorised payment institution asks the firm to show that it can meet its capital requirements, safeguard customer funds and run its finances under proper control. Much of that evidence comes from the finance function: a business plan with financial projections, capital calculations under the relevant method, a safeguarding policy and reconciliation procedure, and a description of the governance and internal controls around them. The FCA’s pages for payment services and e-money regulations and its guidance on authorisation are the starting points.

Applicants often bring in a fractional or interim Financial Controller to build this evidence and then stay through the first year of authorised operation, when the first regulatory returns and first safeguarding audit fall due. See fractional FCs for FCA-regulated firms and our overview of e-money and payments regulation for fintechs. Firms building in digital assets face a related set of rules; see crypto and digital assets finance recruitment.

The CFO and Senior Manager Functions

Accountancy Capital covers the finance team below board level. Where the firm needs a CFO or Finance Director, including one who will hold the SMF2 Chief Finance function under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, that search runs with our sister firm FD Capital. For other senior manager appointments, such as SMF16 Compliance Oversight and SMF17 MLRO, our sister firm SMF Capital specialises in FCA-approved roles. Many fintech clients use more than one firm in the group as the business grows, and the briefs join up.

How We Run a Fintech Finance Search

• Same-day brief call. We agree the real scope of the role, the regulatory permissions, the systems, the investor reporting cycle and the salary or day-rate budget.
• Targeted approach. We approach finance professionals with direct payments, e-money or fintech experience from our network, rather than advertising and waiting.
• Technical screening. We test regulatory capital, safeguarding and KPI reporting experience before anyone reaches your shortlist.
• Shortlist. Typically within one to two weeks for permanent roles and within days for interim and fractional cover, with a short note on each candidate.

Industry bodies such as Innovate Finance track the wider UK fintech market; our role is to find the finance people who keep individual fintechs well run.

A View From Our Founder

Adrian Lawrence FCA sees more variation in finance team maturity in fintech than in any other sector, relative to the commercial stage of the business. Some fintechs at around £20m ARR have finance functions that would not embarrass a much larger business; others at the same stage have just appointed their first finance professional and face a backlog of management accounts. The well-run ones understood early that a good Finance Manager or FC is what lets the CEO make better decisions faster. Businesses that hire late spend the first year of that hire catching up rather than building forward-looking capability.

Fintech Finance Recruitment: FAQs

When should a fintech hire its first qualified finance professional?

Usually before an authorisation application or a priced funding round, whichever comes first. Both need numbers that an in-house accountant owns and can defend.

Finance Manager or Financial Controller?

If the role owns the audit, regulatory returns and the board pack, it is an FC role whatever the title. See Financial Controller vs Finance Manager.

Do candidates need payments experience specifically?

For safeguarding and regulatory reporting roles, yes. For FP&A, strong SaaS or subscription experience often transfers well, provided the candidate can learn the regulatory context.

Can you provide fractional or interim cover during authorisation?

Yes. Fractional FCs on one to three days a week are common during an application and the first year of authorised operation, and interim cover can usually start within days.

Do you recruit outside London?

Yes, across the UK from our London and West Midlands offices, including hybrid and largely remote roles.