Non-resident Russian private bankers: How much am I worth?

Basic - around 90,000; bonus - can be considerable but depends on money managed and/or revenues generated.

At the latest count, Moscow is home to some 30 billionaires and several thousand millionaires. Add to this the numerous moneyed Russians living beyond Russia's borders - mainly oligarchs and others who got rich during the Yeltsin era and find themselves now living in London, Paris, or Geneva - and you have a sizeable number of very rich people keeping their money offshore who are determined to see it work for them. Not surprisingly, quite a few western financiers like the idea of becoming private banker to this community.

"This is a small and rather esoteric market but those at the top end, managing large sums, can expect to be paid handsomely," says Taru Oksman-Ison, director at Principal Search.

However attempting to become a private banker to Russia's new rich also has its downside. For one, there are numerous compliance issues for bankers based in London or other reputable western financial centres. Even for bankers accustomed to being discreet, and turning blind eyes and deaf ears, handling Russian money can mean spending a large proportion of the working day fending off tricky questions.

"Prodigious compliance issues remain that prohibit the aggressive capturing of this client base," admits Elvira Muratova, who heads up Russia and CIS recruitment at Napier Scott. Yet this is just one reason why Russian private bankers are more usually chosen over western ones.

"The Russians remain far more understanding of their client high net worth than the Europeans and are better able to meet their high risk appetite for a proportion of their assets accordingly," she adds.

Another big potential drawback for the western banker is that gaining the trust of the typical Russian billionaire - or millionaire - is an uphill task at the best of times, despite efforts by organisations such as UBS and Citibank to create teams dedicated to the Russian market. Cold-calling is simply not an option, however well known and grandiose your organisation. Oksman-Ison says that despite wanting to appear more open and respectable, many wealthy Russians opt to stick with the money men who were by their side over the 1990s. Better the devil you know, particularly if he knows all your secrets.

But assuming one has managed these and other downsides, how much money can one earn handling the business of wealthy Muscovite plutocrats? Muratova says a typical basic salary would be around 100,000, whilst Oksman-Ison comes in with a more cautious 80,000 - not too different from other, mainstream private bankers. The big moolah comes with the bonus. Headhunters say commission can sometime represent as much as 50% of revenues generated or 2-3% of the money attracted. This translates into a sizeable sum - enough presumably to put out of mind any troubling thoughts about where the money might have come from in the first place.

Figures and commentary by Napier Scott and Principal Search.