Job vacancy: Private banker for Russian clients

The Russians are coming. Or at least private banks hope they are. Many are

eagerly courting the new rich of both Russia and eastern Europe, seeing them as a

growing and largely untapped source of potential clients.

Optimists believe the omens for Russia, and therefore the wealth of its citizens, are good - economic growth of 4.2% last year, for example, and membership of the World Trade Organisation looking imminent. They wave away the warnings of pessimists who think oil prices will tumble and take the Russian economy down with them.

In the past some private banks shied away from clients from Russia, wary of its reputation for

'dirty money', according to Tim Gibson, managing director of the search firm Gibson,

Whittaker, Stevens and Thynne (GWST).

That reputation is now receding, he believes, and as a result banks

are more willing to get involved. Private bankers with expertise in these markets are

in big demand, especially as there are few of them.

An advert placed by GWST seeks a senior private banker to work for a leading

Swiss firm, focusing on the Russian and eastern European markets. The job is based

in London.

The advert merely describes the remuneration as 'excellent', but Gibson said

this in practice means six figures in sterling. He adds that successful private

bankers can still earn mupltiples of salary even in these straitened times.

In some private banks, he said, Russian and eastern European specialists are now responsible for a very high proportion of their firm's profits.

He said credible applications had come from people with a range of

backgrounds outside private banking, including capital markets and structured finance.

The key requirement was to have existing relationships in Russia and eastern Europe,

together with the personality to make use of them.

So someone who has been involved in privatisations or bond issues, for

example, might have exactly the right connections to make the switch into

private banking - a career change that is normally notoriously hard to pull off.

'The ability to acquire and generate new business, provide optimum advice to

existing clients and develop broad relationships will be highly prized,'

according to the ad.

The successful candidate must speak both English and Russian fluently and a

third European language is desirable. They should also have a UK work permit.

'Banks don't want the invonvenience of arranging work permits. They will

often reject an otherwise well qualified candidate simply for not having one,' said

Gibson.

Russian clients of private banks often like to make high-risk investments and

are also known for an interest in property, Gibson said.

To some extent, banks may still have to compete with the temptation of illegitimate deals in dodgy corners of Nicosia or Tel Aviv, long favoured by some wealthy Russians.

But if Russian money is becoming cleaner, private banks can only benefit.

This could help offset the global decline in assets under management, which reached 8% last year in the top private banks according to the Scorpio consultancy. Typical bonuses of senior private bankers fell 30% or 40% from 2001 levels, according to the headhunter Sulger Buel & Co.

Job Vacancy looks at advertisements from both eFinancialCareers.com and other sources