Two potentially bad signs for Russian financial services jobs

Is Russia really a growth market for financial services? One hand, you'd think so - it's part of the BRIC quartet. On the other hand, as Bloomberg pointed out this week, funds have been flowing out of Russia due to concerns about political stability.

Russia-focused equity funds recorded $251m of outflows in the seven days to May 9th, pointed out Bloomberg. This compared to $127m to China, $148m to India and $167m to Brazil. Meanwhile, Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Troika Dialog in Moscow, has been issuing disparaging notes about the Russian market, pointing out that, "Russia is a fringe market for foreign investors, and there is no significant pool of domestic capital to take advantage of the cheap entry point."

As if to prove his point, HSBC - which closed its Russian retail business last year, failed to cite Russia as a European growth market during its strategy presentation this week. Instead, it said it would be growing in the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland and Turkey.