The Future of Hiring and Screening in Financial Services: 2025 Trends

By: Joy Henry, Executive Vice President, Americas

The financial and business service sectors are navigating an eventful start to 2025.  As companies adapt to evolving risks and regulatory challenges, hiring and screening trends are shifting to address new threats and compliance demands.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has just published its 2025 Annual Regulatory Oversight Report, highlighting key risks and best practices in the industry.

With identity fraud and insider threats on the rise, firms are under pressure to attract specialized talent quickly while ensuring rigorous compliance measures and maintaining customer trust.

In this changing world, here’s a look at some of the trends shaping the conversation in the financial and business industry in 2025, as well as resources and possible solutions to these new business challenges.

Digital Identity

Identity fraud is on the rise, with a the highest level in three years. This surge is fueled by new technologies such as deepfakes and gen AI fraud, which have made it easier than ever for fraudsters to create convincing identity documents that allow them to infiltrate companies and gain access to valuable data and assets. The risk of identity fraud is especially significant for financial institutions, as they handle sensitive customer information and have direct access to financial assets.

Identity fraud mitigation is critical in the financial and business industry to maintain client trust. Look for solutions with higher identity assurance methods that combine ID document review, facial recognition and biometric matching, biographic data and liveness detection to help mitigate potential bad actors before they gain access to any confidential data. First Advantage’s Identity solution is integrated directly into the candidate experience and spots potential identity fraud before the background check begins.

Fingerprinting

Fingerprinting checks are already required for some positions in the financial industry, but employers may be wondering about best practices when it comes to the rest of the workforce. As a matter of fact, fingerprinting expands the scope of criminal background checks by increasing the sources of criminal records searched, adding an extra layer of due diligence that can help protect your brand. Using

Partner with a trustworthy provider like First Advantage to quickly capture and process fingerprints across the country. We are FINRA’s exclusive partner for fingerprinting, leveraging our expertise in FBI fingerprinting, advanced technology, and our robust fingerprinting network of nearly 1,000 locations nationwide.

I-9 Compliance

All US employers are required to use Form I-9 (also known as the Employment Eligibility Verification form) to verify that new employees are legally authorized to work in the US. Financial institutions are looking for I-9 solutions enabling them to accelerate the hiring and onboarding processes while managing their compliance requirements.

First Advantage provides an I-9 Compliance cloud-based solution with streamlined Form I-9 and E-Verify tools allowing employers to manage their candidates’ data from a centralized platform. Having an integrated solution that can also connect to your ATS integration can help streamline your E-Verify process with auto-submission and integrated case management tools.

Education, Employment, and Credential Verifications

False credentials are another major source of concern for financial and business services companies. In a high-profile case, an applicant was given the role of Chief Financial Technology Officer at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency based on an impressive resume that included high-ranking positions at various major financial institutions, including Fifth Third Bank, Accenture, and Citi. However, an investigation revealed that his former employers had never heard of him.

In a competitive job market, candidates may be tempted to embellish (or flat-out invent) their qualifications. For financial and business companies, employment, education, and credential verifications are the first line of defense. To fill sensitive and high-visibility executive positions, financial institutions may also want to consider specialized executive screening checks in order to minimize risks and potentially negative media exposure.

When completed in-house, the verification process is time-consuming, which is why financial institutions turn to screening providers like First Advantage to check their candidates’ education and work history. Our proprietary Verified! solution helps us minimize the number of “unable to verify” responses to help you hire and onboard quickly.

Continuous Monitoring

FINRA’s annual report lists insider threats as one of the main risks facing the financial industry, highlighting the need for financial companies to remain vigilant even after the initial hire. Insider threats occur when an employee uses their access to company assets, such as their systems and data, to harm their employer or other parties.

The consequences of insider fraud can be costly. According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the financial and business services industry is one of the most heavily impacted, with median losses of $120,000 across 305 incidents. Beyond the financial repercussions, security and data breaches can tarnish an institution’s reputation in this highly trust-based industry.

Access to sensitive data and valuable assets makes financial institutions appealing targets for bad actors. A monitoring program is one of the key strategies employers can wield to mitigate insider risks. By continuously monitoring employees’ criminal records for adverse activities that may have occurred since the initial hire, screening providers like First Advantage can help employers identify potential threats and protect their assets and their reputation.

In the financial services industry, it’s crucial to protect clients, capital, and reputation while managing complex regulatory and compliance requirements. Partnering with an innovative screening provider can help you achieve this efficiently and compliantly.

Are you looking for a trustworthy screening provider to streamline the hiring process? First Advantage provides you with global, industry-specific resources to find and retain the specialized talents you need while managing the complex compliance requirements of the financial industry.

Contact us to learn more about how we can optimize your screening process.