Private banks adding IT talent

Forget investment banks, private banks who manage money for wealthy individuals are also stocking up on IT staff - and they're less fussy.

Edward Ekins, senior consultant at recruitment agency McGregor Boyall Associates, says demand for IT professionals to work in private banks exceeds supply, with network project managers and database administrators among the most frequent vacancies.

Recruiters say private banks are particularly keen on tech candidates with fixed income product knowledge - knowledge of product types such as interest rate derivatives is a common requirement, as is knowledge of third party technology packages such as Imagine Software and Murex.

The bad news is that private banking technologists aren't quite as well off as their investment banking counterparts. Pay is about 10% to 20% less than for investment banking roles, says Ekins. The typical salary for an experienced C++ programmer, for example, is 65k to 70k in the private banking arena.

Private banks' investment in IT is increasing. A recent study from Boston-based research firm Celent suggests wealth managers' spending on IT and compliance systems will be up 15% by 2011.

So where should you be applying if you want to work in private banking? Many leading private banks are part of bigger banking organisations. A recent study by wealth development consultancy Scorpio Partnership found the top five private banks globally were (in descending order), UBS, Citi, Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. Europe is also home to various smaller firms such as Coutts (part of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group), and smaller Swiss houses such as Julius Baer.