Relatively speaking, the debt capital markets in the Middle East are thriving and providing the majority of revenues for investment banks in the region. So, why is there no hiring going on in this sector?

Figures from Dealogic reproduced in Financial News show that there have been five deals worth a combined $10.4bn in the second quarter of this year, which is the highest volume of activity since the third quarter of 2007 before the crisis began to take hold.

According to a report by Standard & Poor’s, there’s more to come. The ratings agency predicted that governments in the region would turn to the debt markets, which would fuel a surge in issuance.

But headhunters tells us that although there are some tentative signs investment banks might be willing to make some hires if the deals continue to flow, so far recruitment has not been forthcoming.

Alex Cormack, director Middle East for executive search firm Sheffield Haworth, says: “There’s the argument that the DCM teams were a little too big for the deal volumes even before the crisis. They’ve made some redundancies, but not too deep, and the teams are still a decent size. I think there will be some hiring soon, but we just haven’t seen it yet.”

There’s virtually no hiring coming out of international investment banks in the region at all at the moment, says Michael Morcos, partner at executive search firm EWK International.

“Some regional commercial banks with investment banking arms are viewing this as an opportunity to pick up some DCM talent in anticipation of increased activity,” he says.