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Equity derivatives might be tipped to shore up cash-strapped investment banks, but professionals in the space shouldn’t expect explosive recruitment.

With investment banks’ appetite for credit derivatives fading fast, equity derivatives have been touted as an area that could offer a glimmer of hope.

Adrien Valenzuela, head of equity derivatives investor sales at JPMorgan, told Financial News that credit investors are turning their attention to equities: “They began looking at the equity derivatives market in earnest more recently because there’s a good liquidity in the market and a high level of transparency.”

It would take a hefty swell of new equity derivatives business indeed to fill the credit derivatives void. Figures from the Bank for International Settlements put the credit default swap market alone at $51 trillion. The entire OTC equity derivatives market is less than $11 trillion.

But has this new interest in equity derivatives transferred across to the job market? Not really, say recruiters.

Matthew Williams from search firm Sheffield Haworth, says: “There is hiring going on in this area, but it’s more about maintaining numbers than massive expansion. It’s actually been slower this year than last year, though we’re expecting it to pick up next month and into May.”

Jeremy Kemp, owner of Jeremy Kemp International (a specialist derivative markets executive search business), says: “There are a good number of interviews taking place at a cross-section of houses. This is partly information gathering, but some houses are pulling the trigger on hiring for specific needs or strategic build-outs, but it’s very much on a case by case basis. Even at the most active houses all hires have to be signed off by the very top decision makers.”

And Williams reckons equity derivatives traders are in plentiful supply, so they’re not seeing any salary hikes. He says an analyst can expect £80k, with bonus varying wildly depending on individual performance. Meanwhile a managing director can take home £150k, with bonuses usually coming in at multiples of salary.

Other areas might be more lucrative. Kemp says he recruited a junior sales and marketing director for retail equity derivatives, who received a guaranteed million dollar package.