Bidding wars have increased salaries and bonuses for senior IT staff working at hedge by 30% and 60% respectively compared to last year, according to business and technology recruiters ReThink Recruitment.

Fhamid Malik, head of financial services at ReThink, says: “A shortage of candidates has meant that bidding wars for top staff can easily erupt – which can result in base salaries being increased by up to 30% to stop key members of their IT teams leaving.”

ReThink also suggests that IT staff with trading and pricing analysis experience rather than solely technological knowledge are increasingly desirable, and that the most desirable tech skills include C# and .Net.

The company also notes that bonuses are now being paid quarterly rather than annually in an increasing number of cases.

However, news of such candidate shortage and bidding wars is not played out in figures from financial services recruiter Astbury Marsden, which suggests there has been a 30% increase in IT contractors looking for jobs in the last month, a direct result of cost-cutting in the sector reports the company.