Credit rating agencies are setting up offices in Dubai – but don’t expect them to start snapping up finance professionals just yet.

Moody’s Investor Service has followed rival Fitch Ratings to establish a presence in the Dubai International Financial Centre. Moody’s will use its new office as a Middle East base to cover debt issuers in the region.

Recruiters say the rating agencies will not have too much work to do until the Gulf has more large international corporations looking to the international debt market to fund expansion.

“There aren’t that many companies being rated at the moment. It will take a couple of years until they have more to do,” says Michael Morcos of headhunters Edward W. Kelly & Partners.

“At the moment,” adds Morcos, “Gulf firms are going to private equity firms to fund growth.”

Stuart Dale, of recruiters EM Group, says candidates with the right experience for ratings agencies are already in demand at banks and other financial firms that carry out credit analysis and due diligence work.

The recruiters say ratings agencies’ compensation is around average compared to that offered by organisations doing similar work. A candidate with around five years’ experience in a related field, such as audit or due diligence, could expect to be paid about US$100k to US$120k. However, bonuses would be around the equivalent of two or three months’ pay.