Job market news for finance professionals in Middle East | Recruitment news for financial professionals in the Gulf

Despite the holy month of Ramadan, a number of key hires were announced throughout August. However, given the time of year, recruitment activity was slightly subdued. Abraaj Capital, the Middle East private equity firm, has opened a new Palestine operation targeted at the SME sector and has hired Fayez Husseini to lead it. ACE European Group, the insurance firm, has named Steve Dixon as managing director of its MENA operation. BDO,... Read more

Exotix, a UK-based boutique investment bank with a focus on emerging markets, has kick-started its Dubai operations and says it has ambitious plans to expand in the region going forward. The bank has been given the thumbs up by the DIFC and has opened its new office with an initial workforce of just three, but says it is currently hiring and has plans to expand its regional operation in the near... Read more

Following on from our recent article on adapting your CV for jobs in Continental Europe, here’s some guidance should you want to apply for positions a little further afield. Middle Eastern CVs How long? Never more than two pages. Be ruthless and only include absolutely relevant information, even if your experience is vast. Include a deal list as an appendix as well as any addition information if necessary. Layout? As a general rule –... Read more

Suffice to say, considering the relatively low pass rate, getting through the rigours of all three exams to become a CFA charterholder is not an easy task. But there are many ways you can shoot yourself in the foot. Aside from not putting in the study time – recommended at around 300 hours per level – there are surprisingly common mistakes or assumptions people sitting the exam make, which often... Read more

Moving from the City of London to the GCC was always going to be something of a culture shock, but moving here for a financial technology role was doubly so. In the City, financial technology is a respected, sought-after career path, and is considered to be the cornerstone of any leading financial institution. Enterprise, energy and competitiveness were just a few of the attributes required to succeed in this industry.... Read more

A poor second quarter for large Saudi investment banks and muted M&A activity during the first half of 2010 suggests that the kingdom may in fact not be the best place for regional bankers to base themselves. Arab National Bank, Samba Financial Group, Saudi Investment Bank, Riyad Bank and HSBC's Saudi subsidiary SABB have all posted reduced earnings for the second quarter of this year. This is largely down to increased... Read more

After a roller-coaster ride over the last two years, evidence of the much-anticipated growth in the Middle East project finance market has emerged in the first half of this year. International banks are beginning to recruit as a result. The proceeds of project finance deals in the Middle East rose by 68.9% on 2009 levels, to reach around $7.4bn in the first half of this year, according to new data from... Read more

Localisation efforts in the UAE financial sector are still heavily focused on the retail banking sector, with few Emiratis viewing investment banking as a viable career path. The thorny issue of attracting locals towards the private sector is a debate that has been raging for some time now, with Emiratis making up just 1% of the workforce, according to experts' estimates. Despite this, banks regularly wax lyrical about their graduate schemes designed... Read more

Chances are, if you're a young banker lured to Dubai a couple of years ago by the promise of big bonuses and a tax free salary, you wouldn't have been too prudent with your finances. However, now that the employment market is a little more shaky, it's worth bearing in mind the emirate's strict policy over debt repayment before splashing out on that new Hummer. Dubai's banks were previously fairly... Read more

Failed in Dubai, try London? Unfortunately not. Recruiters say that any Dubai financiers who want to relocate in the wake of the emirate’s woes will have trouble doing so. “We’ve already had a few CVs from both Dubai and Dubai sovereign wealth funds in London,” says a director at one London recruitment firm, “but we really can’t do anything with them. It’s not particular to Dubai, it’s just that the UK... Read more

A banking job in Dubai, it seems, is no longer as secure as it once was, and with more redundancies predicted in the coming year, expat workers are looking to Abu-Dhabi for new opportunities. The Dubai financial sector can no longer be viewed as a sanctuary for Western bankers. The likes of Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are already trimming their Dubai teams, and mid-market investment bank Jefferies... Read more

Lloyd’s TSB, the UK bank, is planning to open a full-scale branch network in the GCC, in a sign that more international banks are going to make efforts to break the branch restrictions currently placed on them by regulatory authorities. Local banks in the GCC offer far more job opportunities at the moment. They currently account for 77.4% of total assets in the region because they have access to government... Read more

Financial techie types can cash in on Middle Eastern banks’ focus on security. Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force predicts banks and financial institutions in the region are set to spend $2bn on IT this year and next – mainly centred on risk management to guard against fraud and money laundering. Henry Pretorius, head of risk practice at IT vendor SAS, says: “Amidst the region's booming economy and... Read more

With jobs thin on the ground, it's common to seek the security of a professional qualification. In the Gulf, however, this trend seems particularly prevalent, with the number of people signing up to become chartered accountants increasing dramatically. While the numbers are still relatively small, members of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) increased by 26.5% in 2008 in the Middle East, Central and East Asia (as the table... Read more

Dubai's reliance on expat financial services talent is no secret, nor is the fact that increasing numbers are hopping on planes home as redundancies rise and job opportunities dry up. However, while the majority still remain, they could simply be waiting for the right opportunity to leave. New research by consultants at Oxford Analytica, called (rather ominously) 'Dubai expatriate allure fading', suggests the emirate is no longer a very... Read more

Following a similar feature on our UK site, we're asking readers of eFinancialCareers Gulf to give some constructive criticism of this job-hunter's CV. Below is their profile (with all personal details removed) and little about their search for new employment so far. Can you offer some tips about where they may have been going wrong and what, exactly, can be improved about their CV? "I've been looking for a new job... Read more

Let battle commence – Dubai has looked up from its debt troubles to realise it has some serious challengers to its position as the region's leading financial centre. But can it manage to convince financial services firms to recruit in significant numbers again? The popular perception of Dubai as, according to one headhunter, "a Clint Eastwood film set with brushwood running down the streets" is, of course, a fallacy and has... Read more