How safe are Irish financial services jobs? Very. Here’s why…

1. Dublin is still an attractive location for banking and financial services

“Dublin is still proving an attractive location beyond the tax incentive. There’s an increased knowledge-base of talented people across more diverse areas. It’s offering more broad based banking functions than just fund services for example, which means new and more diverse opportunities for different people,” says Paul Cotter, managing director of Joslin Rowe.

2. The credit crunch means there’s more of an appetite for expert fund administration

“Because a number of hedge funds have made the headlines, in a way it has brought us into the limelight a little. There’s more of an appetite for the fund admin sector. It emphasises the value of having financial products independently evaluated. And there’s also plenty of activity because hedge funds make money regardless of whether the market is rising or falling,” says Joan Kehoe, managing director of fund admin firm Quintillion.

3. Banks and financial firms are still hiring.

Bank of Ireland, PFPC, Apex Fund Services and finance company CIT are just some of the companies who have recently announced new jobs or who are currently hiring.

4. The Irish financial regulator is taking a responsible, proactive and flexible approach to the situation.

“Ireland is playing to its strengths in the finance sector. The regulators here are doing a good job by taking a flexible and proactive, but prudent, approach,” says Laurence Shields, founder of law firm LK Shields, whose clients include Dublin-based Nomura Facility Funding Corporation and hedge fund manager BFT.

5. The credit crunch is actually more of a liquidity crisis

“We’re still buying on an opportunistic and selective basis,’ says Fergal McGrath, managing director of the credit spread portfolio at Dexia Investments Ireland. This is not a credit crunch but more of a liquidity crisis,” he says.

From a debt listing perspective, “it’s business as usual,” says Joanne McEnteggart, director of investment funds & debt securities at NCB Stockbrokers.