Standard Chartered’s decision to bolster its FICC trading team in Dubai is indicative of a sector that is slowly heating up in the Middle East.

The bank has announced five senior appointments within its FICC team within the DIFC, and has said that it plans to expand its platform in the GCC in the future. Standard Chartered already has a significant trading floor in the region, with over 200 seats, and says it has seen a 400% rise in GCC FX trading volume over the last two years.

“These senior appointments come at a time when we expect further growth in our FICC business and will support our ongoing commitment to the region,” said Nafees Akbarali, regional head of FICC trading and global head of G10 rates trading at Standard Chartered.

Obviously, the fact that Standard Chartered – which has made a series of senior Middle Eastern hires in various business lines throughout this year – is building in the FICC space is not necessarily indicative of the sector’s buoyancy.

However, there are other positive signs. For instance, last week boutique investment bank Exotix kick-started its Dubai operation, initially be focusing on fixed income sales and trading, and expects to add more headcount going forward.

“We are seeing a greater desire among banks in the Middle East to recruit for roles within fixed income and money market trading,” says Peter Jones, director at recruiters MRK Consulting.

Foreign exchange, in particular, is more appealing to investors in the Middle East as low trading volumes and slumping share prices drive them away from more traditional equity markets. HSBC, BNP Paribas and National Bank of Abu Dhabi are all believed to have seen a sizable increase in business in this sector.

Standard Chartered’s new hires are Varun Malhotra, co-head of global G10 swaps/bonds, who joins from Citigroup in London; Noyan Ayhan, head of Turkey rates and FX trading, who comes from Morgan Stanley; John Banerjee who joins the FX team from Wedderburn Ag; Jeroen Beaard, a senior trader on the G10 and short term interest rates trading desk (STIRT), formerly at Rabobank; and Ali Mohri, a trader on the G10 and STIRT desks, who was previously with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.