eFinancialCareers

Costs may be rising, but you can still make more money working and living in Dubai than in London. Life in Dubai is 40% cheaper than London and 12% cheaper than New York. But salaries for senior bankers are often on a par and bonuses are rising to match. Even in those sectors where pay is higher in London, it may only be just enough to offset the cost differential. For... Read more

Step aside Dubai, Qatar also wants to become a regional financial services hub. Last week, Qatar and Dubai teamed up to create a new US$1bn investment vehicle to look at regional investment opportunities. The Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) regulatory authority recently granted Citigroup a banking licence to open a corporate branch, while Barclays got the nod in September. The banks will have their offices in the QFC headquarters in Doha. The chairman... Read more

Standard Chartered is moving 100 staff to Dubai. Is it down to low-cost local staff or local customers? Staff making the move will be monitoring the bank's loans and trading interest rate products and the currencies of G10 countries. With pay for traders lower in Dubai than London, is the move cost-driven? And are other banks likely to follow in Standard Chartered's footsteps? Mark Thomas, a London-based analyst at Keefe, Bruyette... Read more

Saudi Arabia's banking sector was already hot. It's now in danger of overheating. Yassar Toukan, general manager of Saudi recruitment firm Brainlease, says relationship managers are in the highest demand at both commercial and private banks. Relationship managers act as a liaison between the bank and the client and sell the client on bank services. "Commercial banks are looking to lure and retain large corporate clients; private banks are focusing on high... Read more

Oil-fuelled wealth creation is driving high-octane demand for Islamic bankers in the private banking sector. Samar El Gazar, partner and managing director at Leaders Solutions, tells us international banks are running to catch up with local private banks offering Islamic products. Raed Sater, managing director at Edward W. Kelley & Partners, says that in the past most of the region's private banking was done in London, Geneva or Luxembourg. Now the local... Read more

Burj-al-Arab, Dubai's iconic hotel, designed to resemble a billowing sail, could also symbolise the Gulf property market running ahead of a fair wind. Developments such as The Palm, for example, so loved by footballers' wives, have grabbed the headlines and oil approaching US$70 a barrel is fuelling a wave of infrastructure investment that's predicted to hit US$1.3 trillion between 2007 and 2012. But recruiters are making heavy weather of finding the... Read more

Living in Dubai isn't quite as cost effective as it used to be, but it's still a lot cheaper than, say, London. The good news is that Gulf incomes are tax-free and an array of perks typically makes life that little bit easier to bear. The bad news is that perks aren't being doled out as liberally as they once were. The bill for schooling the children of the region's army of... Read more

Local GCC banks don't pay as well as international rivals, but that may be changing. Russell Adam, a consultant at London-based search firm Akamai Financial Markets, tells us, "If you're on an expat package, it can definitely be beneficial to work for an international bank. However, your career may progress more rapidly at a fast-growing local house." Gareth Clayton, a director at search firm Charterhouse Partnership in Dubai, says local banks are... Read more

Despite a candidate-driven market, it seems local banks in the Middle East have not been pushing the dhow out far enough to attract staff. A senior local recruiter in Dubai says that as a result they are losing staff to the international banks as compensation becomes more focused on bonuses. Some of the newer regional players are throwing big numbers to retain or attract talent, “but you have to if you... Read more

Just how easy is it for Western women bankers to land jobs in the growing financial centres of Dubai, Bahrain and Qatar? Not very, according to some headhunters, who weren't overly keen on being drawn on the subject. "This is too close to the bone," was a common response, although we were told by one London-based headhunter that he'd recently placed a woman and there had been "no issues". Scratch the surface,... Read more

Wall Street bankers are now paid on a par with colleagues in Asia, Dubai bankers saw the biggest pay increases in the last bonus round, and London’s bankers clearly came out on top. Top bankers in the UK received compensation increases ranging from 17% to 22%, according to the latest survey from financial services search firm Napier Scott. In the US, the average figure was 10% to 15%. By comparison, bankers... Read more

Dubai is doing its best to encourage banks to hire more nationals. It won't reduce demand for overseas talent, say recruiters. The Human Resources Development Committee for the financial sector says the programme, known as 'emiratisation', is intended to drive more than 200k United Arab Emirates (UAE) nationals into employment – with many of them going into the financial sector. The aim? To ensure half of roles are filled by local employees... Read more

Private banks in the Gulf are eager to stock up with private bankers, but only if they come equipped with a raft of high net worth clients. “Demand for private bankers has been increasing in the past 18 months…. There is greater opportunity to put money here. The money from the oil boom is staying here,” says James Mackenzie, managing director of recruitment firm Mackenzie Executive Search. “The banks want people who... Read more

How long are you planning to stay in your job? Dubai recruiters say staff with itchy feet are a real and growing problem. “A few professionals are now investing in short term staff due to the high turnover,” says one local mortgage broker. “In the last year alone, at least five of my colleagues have left.” Investment banks appear to be suffering a similar problem. Lehman Brothers chief Richard Fuld says 20%... Read more

The dollar might have hit new lows last month, but that’s not stopping Gulf employers hiring new staff from Europe. Companies need specific skills and if they have to pay more for them, that’s what they’ll do, recruiters say. The mighty dollar’s drop against the euro and sterling has left employers in the Gulf – where currencies are dollar-linked and pay agreed in dollar sums – forking out more to offer... Read more