Qatar banks could create more than 5,000 new financial services jobs this year, with expat bankers in particular looking to move to the emirate.

The forecast by recruiter Kinsey Allen has suggested Doha’s financial services industry will employ some 20,100 people by the end of this year, more than three times the 6,200 people employed by the sector in 2006, and significantly more than the 14,900 people working in the industry at the end of 2009.

The reasoning behind the expansion is the continuing increase in foreign investment, up from $3.63bn in 2008 to an estimated $20.75bn in 2009.

For expats, the attraction will continue to be Qatar’s lack of income tax and relatively liberal culture, with recruiters, for example, already reporting increased interest from London bankers ahead of the UK’s April increase in higher rate income tax.

“The number of people working in the financial services sector in Qatar has increased by an average of 35% year-on-year over the last four years,” says James Bridgman, managing director of Kinsey Allen’s Middle East operations, adding quarterly growth this year would be around 7.7%.

One area that could yet become attractive is bond trading, with Qatar Exchange chief executive Andre Went last month saying the equity market could start bond trading before September as part of a programme to broaden the amount of business it handles.

The plan is to offer trading in Islamic bonds, or sukuks, as well as exchange traded funds and derivatives, with the reorganisation expected to take between three to five years.

Yet the move will be unlikely to lead to an increase in opportunities overnight, cautions Peter Greaves, head of financial markets at Dubai recruitment firm McArthur Murray.

“I imagine it may lead to some jobs but there is already quite a lot of pressure in the market because there has been a migration of traders to the region anyway,” he explains.