Financial Services Executive Search.

Leadership for institutions where trust is the product.

From banking and insurance to asset and wealth management, private equity, venture capital and fintech, we place the leaders who balance growth against risk, and opportunity against regulation. Every search is retained, partner-led and powered by proprietary talent intelligence.

BANKING · INSURANCE · ASSET & WEALTH · PRIVATE EQUITY · VENTURE CAPITAL · FINTECH · RISK
Talk to a partner
Phil Brakewell, Managing Director, PartnerWise Executive Search
Phil Brakewell.
Managing Director
phil@partnerwise.co.uk
Chris Cooper, Principal Partner, PartnerWise Executive Search
Chris Cooper.
Principal Partner
chris@partnerwise.co.uk
Sector coverage

What we cover.

Financial services covers institutions with very little in common beyond regulation. A challenger bank, a reinsurer and a mid-market buyout fund all need different leaders, and the talent pools rarely overlap. We work across all of them.

Banking & Capital Markets.

Retail, commercial, corporate and investment banking, plus challenger banks and building societies. Commercial, risk, operations and technology leadership.

Insurance & Reinsurance.

General insurance, life and pensions, specialty, Lloyd's market, reinsurance and broking. Underwriting, actuarial, claims and distribution leadership.

Asset & Wealth Management.

Traditional and alternative asset managers, wealth managers, family offices and UHNW advisory. Investment, distribution and operational leadership.

Private Equity & Venture Capital.

PE and VC funds and their portfolio companies, across growth, transformation and turnaround. Investment professionals, operating partners and portfolio C-suite, delivered with the speed and discretion deal timelines demand.

Fintech & Payments.

Payments, lending, digital banking, wealthtech, insurtech and financial infrastructure. Leaders who can scale a regulated business and a technology business at once.

Risk, Regulation & Compliance.

Risk, compliance, financial crime, internal audit and regulatory affairs. Among the hardest and most scrutinised leadership hires in the sector.

Director to C-suite

Leadership roles we recruit.

We operate exclusively at Director to C-suite level. Across financial services, the roles we are most frequently retained to fill include:

CEO, CFO, COO, Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Risk Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Chief People Officer, Managing Director, Country Head, Chair and Non-Executive Directors.
Partner, Investment Director, Principal, Operating Partner, Head of Portfolio, Head of Origination, Head of Investor Relations, Head of Value Creation, Portfolio Company CEO and CFO.
Chief Risk Officer, Head of Credit Risk, Head of Operational Risk, Chief Compliance Officer, Head of Financial Crime, MLRO, Head of Internal Audit, General Counsel, Head of Regulatory Affairs.
CFO, Finance Director, Chief Actuary, Head of Actuarial, Head of Capital Management, Treasurer, Head of Financial Planning, Head of Investor Relations.
CTO, CIO, Chief Digital Officer, Chief Data Officer, Head of Engineering, Head of Payments, Head of Cyber Security, Head of AI, Head of Core Transformation.
Chief Commercial Officer, Head of Distribution, Head of Sales, Head of Intermediary, Head of Underwriting, Head of Client Solutions, CMO, Head of Product.

For large-scale leadership build-outs or transformation projects, our Exec-Project service provides a dedicated, scalable search solution. For senior leaders needed on a flexible or interim basis, our Interim & Fractional Leadership practice delivers impact immediately. For hiring below Director level, PW Talent extends the same sector expertise across the full talent spectrum.

Growth, risk and everything between

Institutions are only as sound as the people running them.

Why PartnerWise

Our world of difference.

24/7 AI-sourcing, powered by PW Edge.

Every search is powered by PW Edge, our proprietary talent intelligence platform. Nine intelligence modules, 28+ live data sources, dual-model AI. In a market where the strongest candidates are almost never looking, that reach is the difference between a shortlist of the usual names and a shortlist of the right ones.

Explore PW Edge →

No off-limits restrictions.

The largest firms hold retainers with the largest institutions, which puts much of the market off-limits to them. We carry no such constraints, so we can approach the whole market on your behalf rather than the part of it that remains available.

Discretion, and deal-speed when needed.

Confidential replacements, pre-deal team assessment and portfolio appointments all demand discretion and pace. Every search runs with a named partner and a defined process, so nothing sits waiting for a hand-off.

Built for precision. Guaranteed.

Brief to shortlist in 45 days, hit on 95% of mandates. Psychometric profiling via Assessio AI. Every placement guaranteed for 6 months at Director level and 12 months at VP and above. 92% of our clients return.

The catalysts

What triggers a leadership search.

The institutions we work with rarely come to us because everything is going smoothly. There is usually a catalyst. The five we see most often are:

01

Regulatory change and supervisory pressure.

New requirements, a supervisory finding or a change in senior manager accountability puts risk, compliance and control leadership under immediate scrutiny, and these are among the hardest roles in the sector to fill well.

02

Deals, portfolio and value creation.

A new investment, a bolt-on or an underperforming portfolio company creates urgency to install leadership that can deliver the thesis. Deal timelines do not wait, and neither does the process.

03

Core and digital transformation.

Replacing core systems, building a digital proposition or moving to real-time infrastructure needs technology leaders who have delivered inside a regulated institution rather than only outside one.

04

Market entry and licence applications.

Entering a new market or applying for a licence requires named, regulator-approvable leadership in place before the business can operate. That sequencing makes the search critical path.

05

Confidential succession.

Planned succession, a confidential replacement or a board refresh where discretion matters more than speed. These searches never reach the market, which is precisely why they need one.

Market intelligence

The financial services talent landscape.

Financial services leadership is being reshaped by technology, regulation and capital in parallel, and the talent market has not settled.

Technology leadership is the scarcest commodity.

Institutions modernising core platforms, adopting AI and moving to real-time payments need technology leaders who have delivered at scale inside a regulated environment. That combination is rare, and banks are competing for it against technology companies with different pay structures.

Risk and compliance talent commands a premium.

Senior manager accountability regimes, financial crime scrutiny and operational resilience requirements have made control-function leadership both career-defining and career-risking. The pool of people willing to take named regulatory responsibility at the top is smaller than the demand for them.

Private capital has changed the compensation conversation.

Carried interest and equity participation in PE, VC and private credit have pulled talent away from traditional institutions. Any search that competes with private capital has to be structured with that in mind from the outset.

Insurance is facing a generational handover.

Underwriting and actuarial leadership skews senior, and the specialty and Lloyd's markets in particular face a succession challenge, with fewer people coming through than are approaching retirement.

Fintech and incumbents now compete for the same people.

As fintechs mature into regulated businesses and incumbents build digital propositions, both are chasing leaders who understand product, regulation and unit economics together, rather than one in isolation.

Hybrid working reset geography, then partly reset it back.

Location expectations remain genuinely unsettled across the sector, and getting the working model right is now as material to a senior offer as the compensation attached to it.

We track these shifts through our client work, our network across the sector, and ongoing research through PW Edge. Every search is informed by where the market is heading, not just where it has been.

Client feedback

What our clients say.

“
Phil is the absolute best partner. He quickly learned my organisation, asked the right questions to understand the critical success factors for talent to succeed with us, and respectfully challenged us to open our aperture further and consider unique options that would make us a stronger team. He is my first choice and go-to person for executive talent acquisition globally.
Retained search clientGlobal business
“
I worked with Phil for a couple of years and my dealings with him were invariably open and honest. We worked together to develop a new recruitment model for our business and Phil was instrumental in making that a success. He always worked with a high degree of integrity and inevitably delivered, even on the most challenging search assignments.
Retained search clientInternational group
“
I found Chris to be an excellent communicator, ensuring that both parties always knew what to expect from each other. His relaxed, supportive but very well informed manner did more than just facilitate the recruitment process, it drove it forwards. I would work with Chris again without any hesitation.
Retained search clientSpecialist business
Common questions

Frequently asked questions.

We cover banking and capital markets, insurance and reinsurance, asset and wealth management, private equity and venture capital, fintech and payments, and risk, regulation and compliance. Every search is Director to C-suite and partner-led.
Yes. Private equity and venture capital sit within our financial services practice, covering both funds and their portfolio companies across growth, transformation and turnaround. That includes investment professionals, operating partners and portfolio company C-suite appointments, delivered with the speed and discretion deal timelines require.
Yes, and a meaningful share of our work is confidential: replacements where the incumbent is unaware, board refreshes, and pre-deal assessments. For roles requiring regulatory approval we build the process around that requirement from the briefing stage rather than discovering it late.
Our benchmark is brief to shortlist in 45 days, which we hit on 95% of retained mandates. Deal-driven searches often need to move faster, and control-function roles requiring regulatory approval can take longer. We will tell you which applies at the briefing stage rather than after.
PW Edge is our proprietary talent intelligence platform. It powers every search, drawing on 28+ live data sources across nine intelligence modules to identify candidates, benchmark compensation, map competitor structures and score cultural fit. A standalone client subscription is coming soon.
Two practical reasons. The largest firms hold retainers with the largest institutions, which puts much of the market off-limits to them, and your search often passes to a junior team once the pitch is won. We carry no off-limits restrictions and every search is owned by a named partner from brief to placement. Add PW Edge and a 6 to 12 month placement guarantee, and our 92% repeat client rate follows from all of it.
Sector intelligence

Financial services news.

Live headlines from across banking, payments, markets and fintech, updated automatically.

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Let's talk

Let's find your next leader.

Discreet, retained and partner-led from the first conversation.

Whether you are strengthening control functions, building a portfolio company's leadership team, entering a new market or planning a confidential succession, we would welcome a conversation. No commitment, just a genuine view of your market and the leaders in it.

Get in touch