Could Morgan Stanley bring front office jobs to Ireland?

Ireland is not renowned for a proliferation of front office roles and, while most international investment banks have operations in Dublin, the vast majority of these are fund accounting positions.

Morgan Stanley is no exception – it employs 26 people within its funds servicing division in Dublin, according to its latest accounts filed at Companies Registration office, and paid an average of $155k (€120k) per head in 2011 (although, like Goldman Sachs, the majority of the salary expenses are likely to be spend on executive staff).

Now, however, Morgan Stanley has joined the select group of companies (just 17) registered as a primary dealer in Irish government bonds on the Irish Stock Exchange. This is significant in that this is the first new dealer since the bailout and shows that government borrowing is starting to normalise again.

Becoming a primary dealer doesn’t necessitate a physical presence in Ireland, but some of the other government bond dealers – Barclays, BNP Paribas and Danske Bank, for example – have small investment banking teams based in Dublin. It’s therefore feasible that Morgan Stanley could follow suit.

For the time being, however, the only vacancies within its Dublin operation are focused firmly on the back office.