eFinancialCareers

Female bankers have largely failed to claw their way up the career ladder in Scotland, according to one top headhunter. Douglas Kinnaird, director of Macdonald Kinnaird in Glasgow, has been recruiting executives for over 20 years. Over that period he’s compiled figures for the number of applicants for roles that have been female. This has totted up to a measly 4.8% this year – up from 3.2% when he... Read more

After the flurry of corporate finance deals in Scotland in the lead up to the implementation of the capital gains tax changes, transactions have slowed. But job accountancy firms north of the border continue to bolster their advisory teams. Grant Thornton expanded its corporate finance team this week, with the appointment of Scott Langlands and David Sloan, along with announcing a series of promotions in that division. Similarly, Graeme Smith... Read more

Quietly booming in the Granite City of Aberdeen is the oil and gas industry. And guess what? It’s desperate for qualified accountants, who have seen double digit pay rises over the last 12 months. A study by Hays Senior Finance reveals that the opportunities for financial professionals in Scotland’s burgeoning oil and gas sector far outstrips the number of people willing to make the move to Aberdeen, which is driving... Read more

Things are looking grim at Scottish giant HBOS. Not only are its cheeks burning from a £4bn rights issue that left 62% of shares on the underwriters’ books, but it has announced plans to axe 650 jobs in its business banking division over the next 18 months. What hope is there for Scotland’s out of work bankers? The job losses are likely to result from the merger of two... Read more

Around 2,000 jobs in financial services could be lost by the end of the year, according to a new report, but these are likely to be in the slumping property sector. The labour market report, by Inverness-based Mackay Consultants, says the credit crunch has begun to bite into financial headcount north of the border, thanks to write-downs at Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS. Tony Mackay, author of the report,... Read more

Scottish fund manager Martin Currie has been extolling the virtues of being independent, and is set to capitalise on recent strong performance by hiring 18 investment professionals. The firm reported a 60% growth in pre-tax profits for 2007, to £25.6m. And it reckons the credit crunch has yet to affect growth plans for 2008. Willie Watt, chief executive of Martin Currie, says: “We have no plans to cut jobs and... Read more

UK private bank Brown Shipley has set up an Edinburgh office and plans to expand aggressively over the coming 18 months. But is Scotland’s talent pool deep enough to support yet another new player? Brown Shipley has poached Graham Auld and Victoria Drysdale from Deutsche Tilney to run its Edinburgh office and says it has ambitious plans to expand north of the border. John Williams, the firm’s private client divisional... Read more

Scotland’s accountants have had a bumper 12 months, aided by Alistair Darling's capital gains tax (CGT), but firms still face one stumbling block on the path to growth – a lack of qualified staff. Darling’s CGT proposals mean owners of businesses are trying to sell them and cash in before the new taxes are levied. This means that businesses are being sold which in turn means there's work for corporate... Read more

One Scottish investment group in bullish expansion mode this year is boutique firm Noble. It has poached two Merrill Lynch directors just weeks after expanding its research team. Noble has managed to lure Laura Mould and Paul Beumont, who were previously directors of Merrill Lynch’s small and mid-cap business. The swoop for Mould seems especially impressive considering she joined Merrill as an intern in 1999 and worked her way up... Read more

The indignity of it was too much for one politician to bear. Morgan Stanley, thinking of starting a Glasgow operation last year, was handed £6m by the government to make the move to Scotland. Then it turned out they would have set up here anyway. Fuming, Derek Brownlee MSP, Scottish Conservatives finance spokesman, spluttered: “You can only justify the use of taxpayers’ money to create jobs if they would not... Read more

The indignity of it was too much for one politician to bear. Morgan Stanley, thinking of starting a Glasgow operation last year, was handed £6m by the government to make the move to Scotland. Then it turned out they would have set up here anyway. Fuming, Derek Brownlee MSP, Scottish Conservatives finance spokesman, spluttered: “You can only justify the use of taxpayers’ money to create jobs if they would not... Read more

As Scotland bids for independence from the rest of the UK, there’s the suggestion that its financial services sector could lose out. Global Financial Services Week (GFSW) looks to highlight Scotland’s importance as a financial centre, and the cabinet secretary for finance, John Swinney, took the opportunity to attempt to assuage fears that an independent Scotland could undermine the industry. He said: “We would have to take decisions about the way in... Read more

Female bankers have largely failed to claw their way up the career ladder in Scotland, according to one top headhunter. Douglas Kinnaird, director of Macdonald Kinnaird in Glasgow, has been recruiting executives for over 20 years. Over that period he’s compiled figures for the number of applicants for roles that have been female. This has totted up to a measly 4.8% this year – up from 3.2% when he... Read more

After the flurry of corporate finance deals in Scotland in the lead up to the implementation of the capital gains tax changes, transactions have slowed. But job accountancy firms north of the border continue to bolster their advisory teams. Grant Thornton expanded its corporate finance team this week, with the appointment of Scott Langlands and David Sloan, along with announcing a series of promotions in that division. Similarly, Graeme Smith... Read more

Quietly booming in the Granite City of Aberdeen is the oil and gas industry. And guess what? It’s desperate for qualified accountants, who have seen double digit pay rises over the last 12 months. A study by Hays Senior Finance reveals that the opportunities for financial professionals in Scotland’s burgeoning oil and gas sector far outstrips the number of people willing to make the move to Aberdeen, which is driving... Read more

Things are looking grim at Scottish giant HBOS. Not only are its cheeks burning from a £4bn rights issue that left 62% of shares on the underwriters’ books, but it has announced plans to axe 650 jobs in its business banking division over the next 18 months. What hope is there for Scotland’s out of work bankers? The job losses are likely to result from the merger of two... Read more

Around 2,000 jobs in financial services could be lost by the end of the year, according to a new report, but these are likely to be in the slumping property sector. The labour market report, by Inverness-based Mackay Consultants, says the credit crunch has begun to bite into financial headcount north of the border, thanks to write-downs at Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS. Tony Mackay, author of the report,... Read more

Scottish fund manager Martin Currie has been extolling the virtues of being independent, and is set to capitalise on recent strong performance by hiring 18 investment professionals. The firm reported a 60% growth in pre-tax profits for 2007, to £25.6m. And it reckons the credit crunch has yet to affect growth plans for 2008. Willie Watt, chief executive of Martin Currie, says: “We have no plans to cut jobs and... Read more

UK private bank Brown Shipley has set up an Edinburgh office and plans to expand aggressively over the coming 18 months. But is Scotland’s talent pool deep enough to support yet another new player? Brown Shipley has poached Graham Auld and Victoria Drysdale from Deutsche Tilney to run its Edinburgh office and says it has ambitious plans to expand north of the border. John Williams, the firm’s private client divisional... Read more

Scotland’s accountants have had a bumper 12 months, aided by Alistair Darling's capital gains tax (CGT), but firms still face one stumbling block on the path to growth – a lack of qualified staff. Darling’s CGT proposals mean owners of businesses are trying to sell them and cash in before the new taxes are levied. This means that businesses are being sold which in turn means there's work for corporate... Read more