Murray McIntosh says Financial Services employers are facing the highest risk of strategic communications turnover of any UK sector, as regulatory pressure and rising scrutiny drive senior talent to consider a move. The recruitment consultancy’s latest Strategic Communications Salary & Labour Report found that 62% of communications professionals in Financial Services plan to change roles within the next six months, while 69% have already interviewed elsewhere.
The figures arrive as UK Financial Services enters what Bloomberg has described as a pivotal regulatory year. Reforms spanning digital finance, trading and markets, risk and financial stability, and sustainable finance are moving forward in parallel, increasing the pressure on communications teams that must interpret change accurately for internal and external audiences.
That workload is colliding with a shift in the skills employers now need. Murray McIntosh said demand is rising for communications professionals who can combine policy knowledge and stakeholder management with technical capabilities such as AI literacy and data science. For employers, the challenge is no longer limited to backfilling vacancies. It is also about building teams that can explain complex regulatory developments with consistency and authority.
The report suggests that continuity is becoming harder to maintain just as it becomes more important. When teams are in flux, institutional knowledge can leave with departing staff, and messaging can become harder to align across executives, regulators, investors, and customers. In a heavily scrutinised sector, that raises the operational cost of churn.
Lauren Maddocks, Associate Director, Policy and Public Affairs at Murray McIntosh, said: “The scale of change facing Financial Services this year cannot be overstated. Major reforms across digital finance, market structure and reporting standards are reshaping expectations at pace, and this creates a premium on communications professionals who can navigate complexity with accuracy and authority. At the same time, rising mobility means employers risk losing the very people who interpret, translate and contextualise regulatory change for internal and external stakeholders.”
Her comments underline a wider retention issue emerging across regulated industries, where specialist communications roles are increasingly strategic rather than support functions. Employers must manage policy interpretation, reputation, crisis readiness, and executive messaging at the same time, often with leaner teams than the demands now require.
For Financial Services organisations, the implication is straightforward. As reform accelerates, retaining strategic communications capability may determine how well businesses handle scrutiny, maintain stakeholder confidence, and keep messaging coherent through a period of sustained regulatory change.
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