The lowly-paid and unglamorous financial services roles in Ireland that are nonetheless difficult to recruit for and relatively prolific

The job is not easy, the work can be both technically difficult and involve dealing with stressed out and irate members of the public. Nor is it, in comparison with other financial services roles, amazingly well paid. It is, however, an area where numerous institutions are recruiting in voluminous numbers.

Step forward the humble arrears management professional. Banks in Ireland are recruiting for people to work on distressed loans to SMEs or to help customers facing difficulty with their mortgage repayments.

The scale of the problem was laid bare in AIB's latest interim management statement. So far this year, the bank has 12,000 customers on its books struggling with mortgage repayments and has had to help 29,000 SMEs with funding problems.

AIB has dedicated 'specialised lending units' set up to deal with these customers, as does just about every bank with a significant loan book in Ireland. It now has 800 employees, having recruited 200 people over the course of the last six months.

"There are an increased number of arrears cases from retail to commercial and corporate banking, and all banks are ramping up headcount to meet these needs," says Aileen Kelly, senior consultant at recruiters Careers Register. "The majority of financial institutions have been actively recruiting in this area in 2011, and it's an ongoing requirement."

Yet, banks are struggling to find sufficient numbers of people. Why? Well, for a start a number of different institutions are looking for similar profiles in relatively large numbers, so the candidate base will inevitably become strained.

Then, there's the pay; these roles start at €25k-28k, rising to €28-35k for more serious or complex cases and €40-55k at the senior end. These salaries aren't great, but neither are they amazingly low. They are, however, insufficient to attract people because of the type work involved.

The role is relatively technical (most banks demand the QFA qualification and a deep knowledge of compliance issues), but also requires a good level of customer service. Unfortunately, in this case the customers are generally financially stressed, can be aggressive or simply evasive, and relationships can easily become strained. This working environment doesn't exactly inspire many people to switch into these roles.

"A number of candidates have expressed reluctance to work in arrears management roles and they remain a difficult area to recruit for," says Elaine Liston, team leader at Hudson Accounting and Finance in Dublin.

"Clients are becoming a little more open on the backgrounds they will look at," adds Kelly. "For example, underwriting, collections, arrears, mortgage sales, mortgage customer service are being considered due to their industry knowledge."