Time for derivatives traders to trade up?

Bank of Ireland is one of several companies scrambling to recruit staff in the small but ever-growing derivatives sector.

"A new Dublin team was formed towards the end of last year specifically to carry out back-office functions for our US office. This team supports all products traded by the US office, including derivatives. Salaries are competitive, and depend on the role and a candidate's experience. We offer a competitive discretionary bonus scheme," a spokeswoman said.

"Other IFSC [International Financial Services Centre] companies are more aggressive than the banks with their derivative product innovation," says Helene Bergenstjerna, financial recruiter at Hudson. "These include AIB Capital Markets, Susquehanna International Group (SIG), TD Global Finance," says Gemma Allen at Robert Walters.

SIG, for example, currently has vacancies for graduate traders, middle-office trading operations positions, quantitative researchers and trading interns.

"As the marketplace evolves and is no longer solely centred on London, Irish-based institutions are either initiating or expanding credit derivative trading activities whilst others expand their proprietary trading functions," says Allen.

Credit derivatives traders or proprietary traders (perhaps trading equity derivatives) could command a base salary of €95k to €100k plus up to 100% bonus, according to James Hayes, head of Robert Walters' banking team.

"A treasury manager working in derivatives can command €65k plus 30-50% bonus, whereas an analyst can expect €30k to €45k plus 10-15% bonus. Fund managers generally receive the highest bonuses, with some earning up to 100% of salary," says Daniel Roddy, banking and financial services recruiter for Sigmar.