So far, IT has been relatively sheltered from recruitment slowdown

It would be foolish to suggest that the veracious levels of recruitment within the financial IT space in the first half of 2010 hasn't in some way been dampened by the recent negative sentiment around investment banking. However, going into the second half, there's still a healthy appetite to hire.

There are few reasons for optimism. Credit Suisse (which has been emphasizing its commitment to IT throughout the first half) said it would continue to hire for tech despite the 75 front office redundancies announced earlier this month. It currently has around 90 UK IT vacancies.

Similarly, JPMorgan has 150 open IT roles currently, while Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank each have around 80 in the UK. This is slower than earlier in the year, but still relatively robust.

RBS and UBS are also still relatively aggressive when it comes to hiring techies, according to recruitment sources.

"Banks were aggressively recruiting in the first half and, while there's an element of taking stock of the new recruits and evaluating budgets, there's still a lot of headcount left to fill," says Paul Thoma, director of front office technology headhunters Garthorne Associates.

But it's not just about making full use of headcount signed off earlier in the year. New projects, and the teams to fulfil them, are still being given the thumbs up.

Paul Bennie, director of IT in finance headhunters Bennie MacLean, says: "As new products evolve within the banks, they need people to build and support them. Algorithmic execution trading and e-commerce are both areas where new projects have been kicking off in the third quarter and job opportunities are being created as a result."

Nonetheless, an element of caution has reared its head when hiring for more junior roles, suggests Dan Gallagher, manager of financial technology recruiters Cititec.

"Recruiters are having to jump through more hoops to get roles signed off and there has to be a strong business case for taking people on for expansion rather than replacement," he says.