Banks gear up for hiring

The hires will range from junior staff to director level in areas hit by big redundancies, where banks have been left without sufficient employees to cope with an upturn.

Goldman Sachs is considering hiring 25% more analysts in Europe than it recruited last year. Calum Forrest, head of recruitment for Europe at the bank said: 'We may also need an expanded first-year associate class.'

Credit Suisse First Boston, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup were cited by headhunters and bankers as looking for fresh talent, but the banks declined to comment. A Lehman Brothers spokeswoman said: 'We are selectively hiring across the board.'

The appointments come after three years of extensive staff cuts, which were still under way this year. In its third-quarter results last week, UBS said that, in the year to the end of September, there was a net fall in investment banking and securities staff of 848.

Frank Varela, chief executive of Longbridge, a recruitment firm, said: 'There has been a bit of a sea change in the last month. People who were very cautious and not thinking of hiring are now thinking of how many to hire.'

Headhunters said banks were drawing up plans to hire more staff quickly next year if they are needed. Shaun Springer, chief executive of Napier Scott, said: 'Some banks are already increasing the size of credit teams across the board - traders, salesmen and analysts. One team is looking for 45 people, which will increase its size by 20%.'

Springer said some banks were so keen to hire that they were offering staff more than the sum needed to buy out their bonus. 'Sometimes they are paying too much in my view. One not very senior employee heading for a 400,000 bonus was offered 1m by a rival bank.'