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Scotland, Ireland and the north of England are emerging as key destinations for 'near-shoring', as much as Manila and Mumbai are now known for offshoring.

Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow and, to a lesser extent, Manchester, are all building reputations for expertise in back- and middle-office support, particularly in areas such as asset management, operations, investment management, fund administration and IT, says Chris Gentle, associate partner in financial services at Deloitte.

It's good news for jobs. Deloitte's latest survey calculates that, worldwide, the number of financial services jobs offshored (near-shoring included) has risen 1800% over the past four years, with the average number of staff toiling in distant places rising from 150 to 2,700.

"Ireland and Scotland's call centre operations have been going from strength to strength but there has also been a move to relocate more technically specified jobs," Gentle says.

"Jobs that a decade ago would typically have been done in London are being moved to big centres such as Dublin and Edinburgh," he adds.

Morgan Stanley is one bank that already has a strong presence in Scotland; mostly in Glasgow, where it now employs more than 600 people focused on institutional securities and global wealth management.

Ireland, meanwhile, now administers assets worth more than €1.4 trillion, and employment in the sector rose 22% last year, the Irish Funds Industry Association says.

IT support has become another growing industry for near-shoring and, predicts Gentle, in time could develop a more regulation-related bias, driven in part by the rush to become MiFID (Markets in Financial Institutions Directive) compliant.