My husband (in accounting, not banking) used to use recruiters for his level of accounting. But do the economic downturn, he found that recruiters were no longer getting jobs at his level and looking on job boards was more effective. So it just depends. If you have a recruiter that doesn’t mind you sending out your own resumes as well, then I think you can go both ways. Also with the recruiter, if you are sending out your own resumes, you may want to approve any job the recruiter wants you to apply for, that way the same company won’t get two resumes if they are advertising on their own as well.