Could you cut it as a Central Bank enforcer?
As the Central Bank of Ireland continues to bare its teeth in an attempt to restore credibility to the country's financial sector, new jobs are being created. Over the course of this year, it plans hire 75 professionals for a new, harder-line enforcement division.
The new so-called Enforcement Directorate will have greater clout when it comes to bring banks in line with the new regulatory environment and for cracking down on them when it detects a serious breach of these rules.
The recruitment drive is to ensure that the Central Bank has "sufficient resources to represent at credible threat of action", according to its recently-appointed director of enforcement, Peter Oakes.
Part of this is to allow the new body to conduct more vigorous investigations into any potential wrong-doing, but it also has the power to inflict double the financial penalties it could previously - €1m against an individual, and €10m (or 10% of turnover if this is a higher figure) against a company.
The result is that it intends to hire 75 "lawyers, accountants, regulatory and investigative experts" this year to staff the new division. At the senior end, it still has a vacancy for a deputy head of enforcement.
The Central Bank has stood out as offering job opportunities over the last 12 months while other areas of Ireland's financial sector cut back. Not surprisingly, it tells us that the response to the roles it's been recruiting for has so-far been "positive".
Paul Cotter, director of recruiters Cotter Personnel which focuses on insurance and compliance roles in Ireland, says the perception of security is luring many professionals towards the Central Bank's opportunities.
"The role is considered a safe option compared to other areas in the private sector, and many people are viewing this as a unique opportunity to get involved in this period of change and transformation in Ireland's regulatory regime," he says.
The Central Bank doesn't disclose salaries for these roles, but recruiters suggest that they're competitive with private sector rates.
The regulator is also still recruiting for a new chief operating officer, and continues to hire for other areas of the business including risk, insurance and business analysis.
