Interim MLRO salary · day rates, 2026
What an interim MLRO earns, by the day and by the assignment
An interim MLRO is paid a day rate, not a salary.
Barclay Simpson’s 2026 financial crime guide puts an interim MLRO or project lead at £1,000–£1,600 a day in London and £550–£1,000 in the regions.
Morgan McKinley puts London MLRO contract rates at £500–£700 a day with up to three years’ experience and £900–£1,200 with five or more.
The rate covers full-time work for a fixed period, with no salary, pension or paid holiday behind it.
When you hire an interim MLRO through us, we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
How a brief runswhat we undertake
- 01Brief30-MINUTE SCOPING CALLDay 0
- 02Shortlist of 3–5VETTED · RATE BENCHMARK · IR35After the brief
- 03InterviewsYOU MEET THE SHORTLISTYour diary
- 04Scoped startFIRST-MONTH OUTCOMES AGREEDYou set the date
- 05Fractional, interim and permanentIR35 POSITION SET OUTOn every brief
Shortlist3–5
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire an interim MLRO
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Interim MLRO candidates, their day rates and availability.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02We scope the role and the days a week
- 03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
- 04Fractional, interim and permanent briefs
Pick a day that suits · live availability
On the board · last 3 months
Interim MLRO jobs on the board
No Interim MLRO roles on the board right now.
We only show real vacancies from the last three months, each marked whether we could confirm it is still open — we never pad the board. New Interim MLRO roles appear here as our pipeline finds them.
Interim MLRO roles on the board
Fractional recruiting starts with the brief, not the CV pile. Send a Interim MLRO brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five candidates, each through five-stage vetting.
01/ the role
How an interim MLRO is paid, and why the unit is the day
An interim MLRO holds or supports the money laundering reporting seat full-time for a defined period: a departure, a remediation programme, a skilled person review, or the months before a permanent hire is approved.
For what the seat itself involves, see what an MLRO does.
That makes the day rate the real unit of pay.
There is no salary, no employer pension and no paid holiday, and the interim carries the gaps between assignments.
Across all functions, the Institute of Interim Management’s 2026 survey puts the average assignment at 10.0 months, the average gap between assignments at 3.2 months and the average days billed in a year at 148.
Regulation shapes the assignment.
In an FCA firm under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, the MLRO holds the SMF17 function, which needs FCA approval.
FD Capital says approval typically takes three to six months.
Where the outgoing MLRO stays approved and in place, FD Capital says an interim may be able to provide operational support without a new SMF17 application.
An interim who works through their own company pays themselves through salary and dividends from what the company earns, after its costs and Corporation Tax.
The day rate is the company’s income, not the interim’s take-home pay.
02/ scope
How to hire an interim MLRO
1. Decide who holds SMF17
Settle first whether the interim will hold the function, and so need FCA approval, or support an approved MLRO who stays in post.
The answer changes the candidate you need and how fast they can start.
2. Define the mandate and its end
Say what the interim must deliver and by when: a SAR backlog cleared, a remediation plan closed, a handover to a permanent MLRO.
Barclay Simpson notes that most interim financial crime hiring now covers day-to-day needs such as absence cover, rather than projects.
Suspicious activity reports go to the National Crime Agency.
The firm’s anti-money laundering duties are set by the Money Laundering Regulations 2017.
3. Decide IR35 status at the start
If your business is medium or large, you make the status determination for the engagement and give the interim your reasons.
Settle it before you go to market, because it changes the rate candidates quote.
What we do on an interim brief
We recruit interim, fractional, part-time, temporary and permanent compliance leaders, and non-executive directors.
We send a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, and every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.
Roles on the board are listed on MLRO jobs.
03/ rates by stage
Interim MLRO salary day rates by source
Day rates as each publisher states them, all 2026. Barclay Simpson’s title is the combined MLRO / Project Lead; Robert Walters’ rates are PAYE contract rates of advertised London roles, with its average the mean of those roles; FD Capital’s are interim day rates by sector. None but Robert Walters states a tax basis. All four publishers are recruiters. The IIM figures cover every interim function, not the MLRO alone.
04/ economics
Interim pay and IR35: who decides, and what it changes
Tax status turns on how the engagement runs, not on the title or the contract alone.
Under the off-payroll working rules (IR35), a medium or large client makes the status determination; for a small client outside the public sector, the interim’s own company decides.
The rules apply contract by contract, so one interim can have engagements on both sides.
It shows in the rates.
The IIM’s 2026 survey puts the average interim day rate at £949 outside IR35 and £830 inside, across all functions.
In financial crime, Barclay Simpson found half of the interim staff it surveyed on fixed-term contracts, and those contracts have overtaken outside-IR35 agreements as the arrangement candidates prefer.
HMRC’s CEST tool gives its view on a specific engagement; our IR35 guide sets out the tests.
05/ vetting
How we vet interim MLROs
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify Interim MLRO tenure, sector context and stage fit.
SOURCING - 02
Mandate fit
Match to your situation — stage, board dynamics, timing.
MATCHING - 03
Reference deep-dive
We take references ourselves, from recent past clients — real outcomes, not titles.
VERIFY - 04
Shortlist
Three to five candidates with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5
06/ interim mlro day rate
Interim MLRO day rate by region, experience and firm
The interim MLRO day rate depends on where the firm is and what it does.
Barclay Simpson puts an interim MLRO or project lead at £1,000–£1,600 a day in London, £850–£1,600 in the South East and £550–£1,000 in the regions.
Experience moves it next.
Morgan McKinley puts a London MLRO on contract at £500–£700 a day with up to three years’ experience, £700–£900 at three to five years and £900–£1,200 at five or more.
The firm sets the top of the range.
FD Capital’s interim rates run from £450–£700 a day in consumer credit to £1,000–£1,500 at an investment bank or Tier 1 institution.
Robert Walters’ PAYE contract rates in London run from £450–£650 at a fintech or payments firm to £900+ at a large investment bank.
07/ annualised
Interim money laundering reporting officer salary, annualised
An interim money laundering reporting officer salary is a figure people search for, but no interim is paid one.
To compare, multiply the day rate by the days worked.
At Robert Walters’ £675 average PAYE rate for a London mid-size banking group, 220 days would bill £148,500, and the IIM’s all-function average of 148 days billed would bill £99,900.
Both are our arithmetic, a comparison and not a salary.
At Barclay Simpson’s London band of £1,000–£1,600 a day, 148 days would bill £148,000–£236,800 (our arithmetic).
A full month at £675 and about 22 working days comes to £14,850 (our arithmetic).
That is the client’s cost; the interim pays their own pension, holidays and the gaps between assignments out of it.
For scale, Robert Walters puts a permanent MLRO at a London mid-size banking group at £130,000–£160,000+ in basic salary, before pension and employer’s National Insurance.
See MLRO salary for the permanent benchmarks in full.
08/ the other routes
Interim, permanent or fractional: which pay basis fits
Interim cover buys a full-time MLRO for a fixed period.
A permanent hire is paid a salary and package; see MLRO salary.
If the SAR volumes fit into a day or two a week, a fractional MLRO on a day rate or retainer may cost less over the same months; see fractional MLRO salary.
09/ questions
Interim MLRO salary FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in an interim MLRO.
Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5
Bring the brief. We architect the team.
A shortlist of 3–5 with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after five-stage vetting.
