Charterhouse Partnership and Sandton Group, the UK recruitment firms, have formed a joint venture to offer temporary recruitment services for corporate financiers, at a time when market malaise has led to drastic cutbacks in mergers and acquisitions teams.

The venture, Virtual IB, places people in banks and corporate finance boutiques on a short-term or interim basis. It will initially concentrate on placing staff into mergers and acquisitions teams. The bankers will mainly be junior, and range up to vice-president level.