For instance, the main focus of Bank of Ireland's recruiting in the east has been obtaining multilingual customer service personnel and mortgage and pensions advisers to serve Ireland's Polish population.

A spokeswoman for the bank said that management were pleased with the results of its recruiting programme, which has been mainly concentrated on Poland.

"In Poland, you have a large population of highly qualified people who can adapt well to new roles, " she said. Banking sources have also said that retail banks are also engaged in increasingly intense competition to attract highly skilled financial services professionals from eastern europe to deal with staff shortages in Ireland. Accountants and underwriters are particularly sought after.