This is not a good time for private bankers to face redundancy

Anglo Irish Bank has to sell its wealth management division by the end of March and, assuming it finds a buyer, it seems likely that there will be some jobs fallout. Unfortunately, this is not a good time for Irish private bankers to be looking for work.

The attrition rate at Anglo Irish wealth management has been proportionally high. Around 50 people are now employed there, compared to 83 at the end of 2009.

This means there's not an awful lot of fat to cut when a bidder is eventually found, but these sort of takeovers usually necessitate some redundancies, particularly if the acquirer is a local rival. Take the recent €24m sale of Goodbody Stockbrokers to Fexco, where a 20% reduction in headcount was implemented.

Any Anglo private bankers who fall victim to redundancy face a difficult market.

"When I've tried to place Anglo private bankers previously, the feedback I've received is that their investment experience has been too heavily weighted towards property, which is not what most firms recruiting are looking for," says one Irish headhunter who declined to be named. "Strangely, I've placed people from there in workout and valuations roles within other Irish banks."

As we've pointed to previously, the small amount of recruitment within the Irish wealth management sector has largely been within the international firms. And much of this is taking place at the senior end, suggests Paul O'Reilly, senior consultant - banking & insurance at Robert Walters in Ireland.

"We're still working with three firms recruiting in wealth management, but they would look to take on people with a substantial book of contacts, transferrable assets of anywhere between €50-100m and strong portfolio management skills. This mix of relationship management and technical expertise is hard to come by," he says.