NAMA has had an “exceptionally busy” start to the year. NAMA has also recruited 122 people throughout 2010. Is it paying slightly over the odds to get them?

Maybe so. We’re hearing increasing number of reports that the salaries on offer new NAMA recruits in credit and ‘workout’ positions are larger than those for equivalent positions in banks.

Senior manager roles within NAMA are paying €120k, according to sources close to the situation. Working at a similar level in a domestic bank is likely to offer a salary of around €100k, and usually on a long-term contract basis, suggest recruiters.

“It’s gaining a reputation as being one of the best paying institutions around. They’re not going overboard, but around a €20k uplift is still significant,” says one Irish financial services recruiter.

This is not the first time that salaries at NAMA have been placed under scrutiny. The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), which incorporates NAMA, revealed towards the end last year that 202 staff earn up to €100k, 65 between €100-150k, 22 between €150-200k and that 16 employees have salaries of over €200k.

Such figures may be unpalatable to the Irish public, but it’s not really a question of whether the salaries are sizable, but rather if they’re above the going rate.

If they are, as our sources suggest, then it’s questionable why NAMA feels the need to do so. When they first started recruiting in 2010, NAMA received over 2,700 unsolicited CVs and it’s long been viewed as a desirable destination by financial services professionals in Ireland.

Yesterday, NAMA reported its results for the fourth quarter of last year, posting a €678m loss in the final three months of 2010.

It has, however, exceeded the stated target headcount of 100, and currently employs 122 staff. The were suggestions that NAMA would recruit a further 50 people in the first quarter of 2011 to cope with the extra workload.

Frank Daly, NAMA chairman, said that the opening months of 2011 had been “exceptionally busy”.

Currently, however, NAMA has no new vacancies.