BNY Mellon’s decision to create 50 new funds jobs in Dublin is reflective of a wider recruitment trend in the sector around the pricing and clearing of derivative products.

The likes of BNY Mellon, HSBC, State Street and BNP Paribas are all creating asset servicing jobs around derivative products, according to various recruitment sources.

In the case of BNY Mellon, which announced a new derivatives clearing operation last week, these are around service delivery and operations, finance, compliance, risk management and client services. Elsewhere, though, there’s a growing demand for quant analysts to price these derivative products.

“In terms of fund accounting roles, while these products are complex and require daily reporting, there’s not a difference in skill-set required for derivatives than any other product,” says Martin Byrne, financial services manager at Eden Recruitment in Dublin. “However, quant analyst roles are very hard to recruit for, and most firms will pay well for the right people.”

Part of the problem, suggests Byrne, is that most quants come armed with a mathematical PhD and any with aspirations to work in financial services tend to favour a front office role. Therefore, a lot of candidates view it as an opportunity to network with fund managers and potentially a stepping stone to the front office.

These roles start out paying around €55-60k, but after a few years in the role quickly accelerate to €70-100k, says Byrne.

“A quant analyst could easily earn six figures in London, so it’s a hard sell to convince them to move to Dublin for these roles,” he adds.

Servicing derivative products is a growing sector in Ireland, but most hiring sprees aren’t exactly massive. Firms generally recruit around 5-10 people for their teams, but it’s important to emphasise that more companies are hiring.

“More large fund houses in Dublin are looking to increase the size of their derivatives servicing teams across a range of back and middle office functions,” says Matt Doyle, consultant, financial services at Morgan McKinley in Ireland.

At the senior end, these roles can be relatively lucrative. A derivatives clearing manager can expect a salary of €90-100k.