Mason Alexander in Edinburgh

As many people who work in the Financial Services space in Ireland will know, there is massive skills shortage across a number of areas in our banks. There are a few reasons for this

-       Stricter regulation from the CBI and ECB

-       An influx of international banks and funds who have hired aggressively

-       Competition from new forms of FS like Fintech businesses

This has led to a great demand for professionals with relevant banking experience. Mason Alexander works with a large number of financial institutions and instead of complaining about the lack of candidates in the market, we have been really proactive in sourcing people abroad to come and work in Ireland. This has seen us visit a number of countries this year, but with the fallout from Brexit still ongoing, we have spent the summer targeting cities across the UK.

On Thursday last, my colleague Eoin and Maria, together with one of the pillar Irish banks, hosted a conference in Edinburgh to discuss and sell opportunities to work in Ireland. We are truly committed and passionate about Ireland.inc and in particular the clients that we work with. So we were very pleased to have a room full of banking professionals in Edinburgh interested to hear what was on offer.

Although it looks like it’s going to be a few years before we know what Brexit will really look like, there is still a lot of uncertainty in the UK; and with Ireland now very much looking forward, there are some real benefits in making the move here:

-       Thriving corporate industry across banking, professional services, finance and industry & commerce 

-       An influx of Foreign Direct Investment

-       Opportunity to continue trading on the single market

-       Increasing depth and sophistication of our Financial Services sector

-       Broad cultural similarities

-       And Ireland now being recognised as a hub for international businesses

What also really struck me (and the crowd obviously as well as we have been inundated with applications) is how passionate the speaker from the bank talked about his firm’s offering and how the bank has moved to be much more inward focused, giving it’s staff the opportunity to really make a difference and make an impact in how the bank is being run. This is a far cry from the strategies Irish banks deployed 10 plus years ago and this can only be a good thing for people working in the banks now. And with a happy and motivated workforce, this can only be a good thing for it’s customers.

Mason Alexander have many more trips planned before 2016 is out, but there are some really exciting things happening in the financial services sector in Ireland at the moment. If you are interested in finding out about the opportunities, contact my colleagues Eoin Connolly [email protected] and Maria Keogh [email protected]

Andrew Lynch

Managing Director

Mason Alexander 

01-6854414