The Datum Report

Occupation 1131 · Managers, directors and senior officials

Financial managers and directors

Half of full-time financial managers and directors in the UK earn more than £76,447 a year, and half earn less.

Financial managers and directors plan, organise, direct and co-ordinate the financial information of companies, the activities and resources of financial institutions, such as banks and insurance companies, and advise on company financial policy.

How people enter it

Entry is most common with a relevant degree or equivalent qualification, although it is possible with A levels/H grades, S/NVQ levels 4 and 5. Those with higher qualifications may obtain accelerated training. Internal promotion to management is possible and on-the-job training is provided. Professional qualifications are available and are required or mandatory for certain posts.

What the work involves

• participates in the formulation of strategic and long-term business plans, assesses the implications for the organisation financial mechanisms and oversees their implementation
• plans external and internal audit programmes, arranges for the collection and analysis of accounting, budgetary and related information, and manages the company’s financial systems
• determines staffing levels appropriate for accounting activities
• assesses and advises on factors affecting business performance
• plans, organises, directs and co-ordinates the activities of financial institutions
• ensures compliance with accounting, recording and information storage, retrieval procedures and the statutory regulatory framework

Also called

Bank Manager · Finance Director · Insurance Manager · Investment banker · Treasury manager

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for financial managers and directors, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 8 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Charitable organisation managers and directors · Functional managers and directors n.e.c. · Human resource managers and directors · Information technology directors · Marketing, sales and advertising directors · Public relations and communications directors · Purchasing managers and directors