Irish banks want special servicers to chase bad loans

While the official line coming out of Ireland's banks is that there's an across the board recruitment freeze, it seems they may be making a few under the radar hires in order maximise recoveries on under-performing loans.

The so-called 'special servicing' roles - where bank staff work with individuals and companies in order to modify or extend loans, as well as attempt to advise on how to turn their performance around - are in demand, according to headhunters.

"The content of the job is too look and bad loans and manage the whole process, whether that's through attempting financial correction of the company or re-negotiate the terms of the contract. The people being hired therefore tend to come from either a legal or financial background," says one headhunter who wanted to remain anonymous.

We reported on our UK site that these type of roles were increasingly hot property and Swedbank, itself struggling with a plethora of bad loans from Baltic states, is recruiting 200 people to try and ensure these can be recovered or restructured.

In Ireland, it's a much more low-key affair, and while banks have some appetite to take people on, it's in small numbers and the new recruits would focus solely on corporate accounts.

"It's not a major recruitment drive, and is done very much under the radar," says another financial recruiter.

The roles also tend to be fairly senior, director level and above, and pay between €70-90k.