Ireland’s Financial Regulator is recruiting 20 supervisors to oversee risk management and compliance within the six domestic banks covered by the state guarantee of liabilities.

It’s a sign that the regulator is rolling up its sleeves and getting involved in the day-to-day supervision of the banks that have signed up for the government scheme. The new recruits will be placed within the firms to manage regulatory compliance and all aspects of risk management, from credit to operational risk.

On Friday, it was confirmed that six Irish banks – AIB, Bank of Ireland, Anglo Irish Bank, EBS Building Society, Irish Life & Permanent and Irish Nationwide – had signed up to the government’s €500bn bailout plan.

Five foreign-owned banks including Ulster Bank, Halifax-Bank of Scotland (Ireland), IIB Bank, and Postbank are also due to submit the sign-up paperwork later this week.

As well as compliance and risk, other duties of the banking supervisors would include assessing proposals for mergers, acquisitions, re-organisations and any new activities.

The regulator has extended its search internationally and says it has already received a large volume of applications (thought to be around 200) of a “very high standard”.

“We’re very hopeful we will appoint candidates with strong levels of international experience and significant expertise within banking and the wider financial system,” says a spokesperson.

The Financial Regulator has also asked the six banks for new business plans showing how they will reduce the risks currently facing them.

Aside from the regulator’s hiring spree, demand for operational risk and compliance professionals has increased in the face of deteriorating market conditions, reckons Paul Cotter, director of Cotter Personnel.

“Companies are beefing up risk and compliance across the board,” he says, “both at the senior end to deal with increasing pressures currently, and for junior positions because of what’s going to be required down the road.”