Financial news Ireland – job market news, recruitment & career trends in Ireland for the finance sector

Needless to say, in the pre-crisis days of reckless lending within the Irish banking sector, when deals were sealed with a wink and handshake, being a corporate banker was all about who you knew, rather than a necessity to be equipped with an arsenal of quantitative analytical skills. This is beginning to change. Patrick Honohan, the Central Bank governor, highlighted in his recent report how anxiety over maintaining market share... Read more

Because it's traditionally been where the jobs (and the money) are, technologists working within investment banks have obviously gravitated towards the City. But, with more development work being 'nearshored', is there an argument for moving to a more provincial location? Examples of relatively highly-skilled development work being carried out beyond the confines of the square mile are numerous. J.P. Morgan (currently) has its European Technology Centre in Glasgow, where... Read more

Anglo Irish Bank has just released its interim results for the first half of this year and they're not pretty – posting a huge loss of €8.2bn as loan impairments and NAMA loan transfers continue to weigh heavy. This follows the €12.7bn deficit for the 15 month period to December last year – the biggest corporate loss in Ireland's history. So where does this leave Anglo? Amid growing calls for the bank... Read more

Make no mistake, two years on from the initial injection of state funds, Irish banks are still in one hell of a mess. Standard & Poor's joined Fitch in downgrading Ireland's sovereign rating to AA- over concerns that the cost of the banking bailout could rise to €50bn (way off the mark, according to NTMA chief executive John Corrigan). And Irish Nationwide and Anglo Irish's belated transfer of the second... Read more

It's a tad ironic, perhaps, that a nation with one of the proportionately largest Roman Catholic populations in the world is turning to Islamic finance for new opportunities. Are Ireland's ambitions realistic, and what jobs are likely to be created if it succeeds? Any new jobs are still a way off, but the Irish government has recently made some regulatory and tax changes designed to attract more business from Islamic finance... Read more

As we alluded to last week, redundancies in the Irish banking sector now sadly seems like an inevitability. But the scale of job losses predicted across the financial sector is rather astounding. The finance union Irish Bank Officials' Association has forecast that another 4,000 roles are likely to go over the next six months with AIB – which is radically restructuring under terms agreed with the EU – the main... Read more

If rumours are to be believed, Irish financial services professionals are leaving the country in their droves to pursue opportunities in more buoyant markets. But is this really the case, and is their an argument (from a career perspective) for staying put? As we've alluded to before, accountants – with their internationally recognised qualifications – are looking for more lucrative opportunities in the City and elsewhere in Europe. However, with opportunities currently... Read more

The Irish Central Bank's 150-strong recruitment spree has been something of a shining light in an otherwise bleak financial services hiring market, and this is also the case with its graduate intake. The regulator is one of the few financial institutions significantly recruiting graduates this year, with 60 places on a starting salary of €30k on offer to start in October. Not surprisingly, they've proven pretty popular, with around 1,500... Read more

Despite both AIB and Bank of Ireland's focus on shrinking operating expenses – and ongoing reduction of headcount – cost income ratios at both institutions remain sky high. It's therefore likely that more significant job cuts could be necessary going forward. The supposed iron grip on costs at both banks hasn't had a great effect as revenues continue to tumble. The cost income ratio now stands at 62.7% at AIB (compared... Read more

The 230 redundancies confirmed by Anglo Irish Bank today has to rank among the least surprising announcements of recent times – even if final number of job losses does fall at the lower end of predictions. However, rather ominously, more are likely going forward. Of the 230 job losses, 110 will be in Ireland, while 95 fall on the UK operations and 25 in the US. The bank also says that... Read more

Amid one of the worst employment markets in living memory, beleaguered lender Anglo Irish Bank is due to unveil a wide-ranging cost-cutting exercise next month, which could see hundreds of jobs lost. What chance do its employees have of finding new positions? The bank has been working with external consultant Deloitte since May to determine the scale of a programme designed to shrink costs “to match the balance sheet size”. October... Read more

The message to Irish students hoping to move into financial services upon graduation next year is very clear – look overseas. Perhaps not surprisingly, considering the overarching grim tidings within the Irish banking sector, domestic institutions like Bank of Ireland, Anglo Irish and AIB have cancelled their graduate intake for 2010. "The domestic market is pretty much closed for recruitment and that is reflective of the situation affecting the... Read more

Bank of Ireland has transferred over 2,000 staff from its retail banking division in the Republic to the group's central support functions in the face of reduced business activity. Elsewhere, total headcount has reduced by just 5%, but a hiring freeze remains and bonuses have been slashed as part of an ongoing cost-cutting exercise. "Staff numbers are down as a result of a recruitment freeze, a policy of non-replacement of... Read more

Anglo Irish's decision to award 70 staff 'modest' pay rises is not only out of kilter with continued poor results at the bank, but is also unreflective of salary trends in the country's financial sector generally. The move to award salary increases to 40 staff in Ireland, 20 in the UK and 10 employees in its US operations has not gone down well at all. Needless to say, after nationalisation,... Read more

Ireland has again fallen victim to Royal Bank of Scotland's wildly swinging axe, after the bank revealed it cutting 108 jobs within its asset financing unit, Lombard. RBS has deemed the division "non-core". This follows job cuts at Ulster Bank and mortgage lender First Active, both arms of the Scottish bank, over the last year. 84 of the redundancies will hit the Republic of Ireland, with the remaining 24 positions going from... Read more

AIB staff have the government to thank for the fact that the bank has yet to announce any redundancy plans, in spite of posting a €872m for the first half of 2009. However, headcount is down since the beginning of this year, bonuses have evaporated and hiring is still non-existent. The results were predictably bleak – a €872m loss for the first six months of 2009, compared to a €1.04bn profit... Read more

Bank of Ireland features quite prominently on the league table of financial services redundancies so far this year, but other Irish banks have yet to register union Unite's job cuts round up. The bank has chopped 1,035 people between January and April of this year, according to Unite, which has published the (very long) list of financial services job cuts in an attempt to highlight the plight of the industry. "The financial... Read more