Overheating finance market drains brains from overseas

An international shortage of financial services talent is creating a brain drain from smaller markets according to one recruiter.

"Whenever conditions are strong in Asia, London, or New York, analyst and associate level bankers who are seeking a more international career make the most of the opportunity to move on," says Victoria Biggs, a consultant at Sydney-based Jon Michel Executive Search. "We are seeing a real exodus at the junior level," she adds.

The rush of emigration is not restricted to Australia. International recruitment firm Robert Walters actively pursues financial services staff in Australia, South Africa and New Zealand to fill London jobs.

Toby Fowlston, director of investment banking contract hiring at Robert Walters, says the tight market for operations professionals means banks need to supplement the UK labour pool with staff from elsewhere. "Banks in London are trying to hire on a permanent basis but they can't secure the right kind of people," he says. "As a result, they're releasing a lot of roles through their contract desks and a lot of those are going to staff from abroad."

Research from recruitment firm Morgan McKinley showed that during May there were only 0.92 new candidates coming onto the London market for every new job.

Biggs says the growing exodus of talent is creating a headache for recruiters in the Australian market. But some overseas recruiters are more sanguine about the threat posed by emigration.

Nicola Flavin, a consultant at Irish search firm Accreate, says the flow of émigrés from Dublin to London is abating rather than increasing. "The market here is very lucrative and buoyant so there's less need for people to move to London than previously," she says. "People who work in the front office can benefit from spending time in London, but if you work in a back or middle office role there are now ample opportunities in Dublin."