eFinancialCareers

On the face of it, international investment banks are ramping up their teams in the Middle East. However, it could be that many are only transferring existing staff across to the region and opportunities for external hires are actually few and far between.

The Financial Times reports that investment bankers in the likes of Citi, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, and Lehman Brothers are “queuing up” to move to the GCC. They now view the region as a lucrative career opportunity.

But while headcount is undoubtedly growing, international banks are mainly transferring their best and brightest to the region, rather than actively recruiting anyone new.

Jonathan Duckfield, head of executive search firm Options Group’s Dubai office, says that most international banks they spoke to at the tail end of last year were looking to double, or even treble, headcount in investment banking or institutional sales.

He says: “This clearly hasn't happened, mostly as a result of global restrictions and serious lag-times in getting sign-offs for individual hires. Most are now frozen until the end of the year.”

Alex Cormack, director, head of Middle East at recruiters Sheffield Haworth, adds: “There's no doubt that international banks are building up their teams, but apart from a few exceptions, these are largely internal transfers, with the occasional team move and high-profile hire. There are actually far fewer external hires than this time last year.”

UBS, while languishing under sub-prime problems in Western markets, is doubling headcount in the Middle East, while Deutsche Bank is also aggressively increasing staff numbers.

Bill Allum, managing director of search firm Napier Scott, says this year has been an extremely busy one in the Middle East, but adds: “Some banks are not hiring anywhere, and are not even bringing people into the region from their head offices. However, we have been involved in a number of senior-level hires within international banks, where the person we placed was from outside the organisation.”