If you want a risk job at an Aussie bank, the advice is to get specialist. Generalists are no longer in vogue because Basel II implementation has largely run its course, says Mike Ritchie, a risk advisory services partner at KPMG. He tells us: “The credit crunch has meant that banks have not reduced their teams as they expected to after Basel. There is still a shortage of highly skilled credit, market and operational risk specialists.”

Luke Heath, chief executive of Chandler Heath Executive Recruitment, says banks need market risk professionals with specific product knowledge.

Heath says the allure of risk is now such that he says a few front-office types, from prop trading or structured products backgrounds, are even considering moving into market risk: “Perhaps they’ve been made redundant, or reached a stage in their careers where they don’t want to work across time zones, but they still want to be at the coal face.”

Meanwhile, Jules Stocky, associate director of financial services at recruiters Robert Half, says the liquidity crisis has helped create a talent shortage for credit risk staff with financial modelling experience.

The large local banks – ANZ, CBA, Macquarie, NAB, St George and Westpac – are the most active hirers in volume terms. But, according to Stocky, superannuation funds are taking on risk staff more rapidly. “It may only be one or two people at a time, but that’s still quality talent which the banks can’t get their hands on.”

The Big 4 accountancy firms provide a fertile hunting ground for banks because they train new risk professionals so well, says Stocky. KPMG’s Ritchie comments: “We are looking to fend off the banks as they do target our people.”

Generalists may be better off at a bulge-bracket bank, adds Ritchie. “In the international banks you are applying general global frameworks set by the head office in Europe or the US, rather than developing specific local solutions.”

Heath says a risk VP at a local bank should expect a base salary in the region of AU$200k.