There is a lack of "fresh blood" for European asset finance companies to draw on, according to Miles Clarke of recruitment company CBC Resourcing Solutions.

Talking to Leasing Life, Clarke said business was "brisk", with "no shortage" of opportunities in terms of vacancies. However the challenge for the market is the "relative lack of talent", and "getting the good guys and girls is not always easy".

"The challenge that the whole asset finance industry has got," he said "not just in the UK but across Europe, is that there isn’t the breeding ground that there once was; the historical network of lots of branches bringing bright young people into the business to train and develop them. Therefore, arguably, it’s an ageing pool, there isn’t a huge amount of fresh blood coming into the industry."

He added that CBC, which recently marked its 21st year of operations with a rebrand from CBC Recruitment Solutions, was "very buoyant" about the future, although the undersupply issue is currently making for "very hard work".

Asked about the impact of ING’s withdrawal from the market in 2012, the out-placement programme for which was run by CBC, Clarke said that there hadn’t been a huge increase in the talent market.

This was because the majority of staff were "pretty much fixed by the end of the year."

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He said there was "a huge spike in activity where three or four big finance companies picked up a large number of people", however "typically what they took on was a group of people, so they lifted and shifted a team."

However, although the withdrawal did not do much to transform the talent pool, Clarke believes it will have a knock on effect, as companies that are moving to plug the £1.2bn funding gap will need to find talent to "gear up" and help "pick up momentum".