Is Dubai really an oasis for bankers?

Forget the gloom on Wall Street and look to Dubai, where the sun always shines, pay for investment bankers is comparable with New York, income tax is non-existent and the hours are easy during summer time.

In a throwback to the “Shanghai, Mumbai, Dubai or goodbye” ethos of 2008, Business Insider has published an article extolling the virtues of working in the UAE as an investment banker.

Everyone has a maid and a nanny, it claims, cost of living is falling, pay and bonuses are comparable with Western markets (but without the taxes), and residents can entertain themselves within large shopping malls and the Abu Dhabi Formula One is a stone’s throw away.

All fair enough, of course, but there’s just the small stumbling block of a lack of investment banking jobs currently. Recruiters and headhunters regularly tell us that no banks are hiring (or talking up recruitment) in their small investment banking divisions in Dubai and the slumping deal activity suggests this unlikely to change any time soon.