AS THE National Asset Management Agency (Nama) prepares to set about the biggest set of transactions in Irish corporate history at great expense to taxpayers, it seems the august body may avoid an item of expenditure common to most start ups: recruitment advertising.

Michael Somers, chief of Nama’s parent body the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), disclosed yesterday that the organisation has received some 1,300 unsolicited job applications.

With the main Irish financial institutions under siege amid recession and the credit crunch, it seems legions of bankers are hankering after the safe harbour of the State and the prospect of a couple of decades’ work picking up the pieces from the bank debacle.

The financial system at a virtual standstill and the property market gasping for air. Thus Nama may yet be the only show in town when it comes to recruiting financiers. A far cry, indeed, from the go-go years of heady growth, copious profit and abundant bonus payments. Survival is all these days.