eFinancialCareers

The gloves are off in the Scottish fund management industry, as newcomers to Edinburgh have sparked a war for talent. “There’s a lot of poaching going on – it’s a dog-eat-dog world. The cosy deal that once existed in Scotland where they wouldn’t touch each other’s people has long since been ripped up,” says one headhunter in the region. The traditional culture of loyalty in the fund management industry harks back to... Read more

Scotland may have been left relatively unscathed by the credit crunch, but analysts advise financial services employees to watch their back (office). Merrill Lynch has revealed that it is to axe 65 jobs in its Mortgages Plc division in Glasgow, and with other banks with back-office units in the city posting losses, could this herald more redundancies? “I think generally there is a poor visibility at the moment in the markets,... Read more

Glasgow has aspirations to compete as a financial centre, but will its back-office focus leave it wanting on the global stage? In a recent ranking of global financial centres, Edinburgh scraped into the top 20, but the report’s authors say they have received numerous requests for Glasgow to be added to the mix. Michael Mainelli, one of the report's authors from Z/Yen Group, says: “Some people think that it has the potential... Read more

Newly qualified accountants in Scotland are in the privileged position of being able to cherry-pick the best roles, such is the current demand for their services. A report by recruiter Joslin Rowe is the second in as many months to suggest the financial services industry in Scotland is thriving to the extent that roles simply cannot be filled. New permanent roles have rocketed up over the past 12 months by nearly 43%,... Read more

Scotland’s financial sector continues to boom. But where are all the people to fill the jobs? The most recent Bank of Scotland survey of the Scottish labour market, published in October, reveals finance and accounting employers are facing acute skills shortages – they rank second behind engineering and construction as finding it hardest to fill roles. The gaping hole in the supply of talent might be down to the fact that Scotland... Read more

Is Edinburgh a world-leading financial centre (and commensurately good place to develop your career)? Only just. The city has slipped five places in a survey of top financial centres, but scraped into the top 20 cities in the world. In the second report from the Global Financial Centres Index, commissioned by the City of London Corporation, Edinburgh ranked 20th out of 50 centres, down from 15th in a survey earlier this year. The... Read more

Forget cash, it’s the right corporate culture that Scottish financial services employees want. In contrast to their money-hungry counterparts south of the border, 88% of financial services workers in Scotland rate an organisation’s culture as more important than remuneration, according to a survey by recruiters Badenoch & Clark. Margaret Hare, recruitment consultant at Qualitas in Scotland, says: “I would say that we have seen a move towards candidates looking towards the more... Read more

Worried that investment banks culling staff in London will send a flood of City-slickers cap-in-hand to Scotland? Fear not. The Centre for Economic and Business Research’s forecast of 6,500 financial services job cuts in London have understandably left City workers hot under their pink collars. In light of this revelation, we asked our readers where they would go if they were to lose their jobs. A total of 1,070 responded and... Read more

Investment managers in Scotland not convinced by the attraction of the big institutions might want to consider law firms as an alternative. This unlikely route into investment management is booming north of the border, as the traditional role of the Scottish solicitor – a man of business involved in clients’ financial affairs – has evolved into a multi-million pound industry. “Investment management within law firms is particularly well developed in Scotland,” says... Read more

With contemporary art prices rising 55% in the past year, Scotland’s private bankers would do well to know their Monet from their Manet. However, while London’s investment scene appears convinced of the benefits of art as an investment class (witness this week’s Frieze Art Fair, which is expected to raise £145m), Scotland may be falling behind. The Bank of Scotland is sadly lacking in art expertise at its private banking arm, while... Read more

Forget investment banking job cuts, fund managers are defiantly bullish on hiring: most are planning to add staff. The latest CBI-PwC financial services quarterly survey says a balance of 73% of fund management firms are looking to recruit over the next three months, a figure only slightly down from the 80% for the previous quarter when the sub-prime crisis was a mere dot on the horizon. Headhunters confirm hiring has a rosy... Read more

Scottish financial services seems set to keep up its headcount when all about them may be cutting back. Gordon Arthur, interim of CEO Scottish Financial Enterprise, tells us, "A lot of the strength of the Scottish employment market has been driven by financial services. I do not think there is likely to be an impact from current market conditions." The reasoning behind such optimism is that financial services jobs in Scotland are... Read more

Nasty things may have knocked a Newcastle-based mortgage bank, but that doesn't mean fund managers in Scotland are panicking about their bonuses. OK, Baillie Gifford has reportedly lost £250m through an ill-advised dalliance with Northern Rock shares – but the rest of Scotland's asset management community is said to be sanguine about pay. For instance, firms such as Aberdeen Asset Management, Resolution and Aegon have all enjoyed strong growth in the... Read more

Employment in Scotland's financial services industry is booming, but jobs in the country are still mostly in the back office. According to a Bank of Scotland report released last month, business and financial services employment accounted for 65% of the net increase in Scottish jobs over the past five years. Fidelity is among those hiring – the fund management group recently poached David Urch from Scottish Widows to lead institutional UK equity... Read more

Quant strategies may have performed badly in recent weeks, but recruiters say Scottish funds' demand for quants remains robust. Paul Travers, a senior consultant at recruitment firm Morgan McKinley, says Scots fund managers' demand for quant analysts is higher than ever before. Andrew Welsh, senior consultant on the investment banking desk at recruiter Joslin Rowe, says investors seeking downside protection "when markets go belly up" mean risk analysts now accompany fund... Read more

Exactly what do Scots fund houses look for when they're hiring trainee fund managers? Will Brydon, human resources business partner at Martin Currie, says numeracy is vital, as is the need to assimilate a huge array of information about the way markets are going. But, he adds, what ultimately makes the difference between a good or bad fund manager is their ability to take calculated risks. Richard Fletcher, of fund management headhunter Fletcher... Read more

Quakers founded Friends Provident, but its takeover by Resolution could cause quaking amongst staff in the two organisations – and all life and asset management companies. Resolution and Friends Provident agreed an £8.6bn merger last month, creating the UK's fifth-biggest life assurer. But what's good news for business may not be such good news for jobs. Nick Boakes of Friends' press office is sanguine about employment prospects in the newly-named 'Friends... Read more

Does Scotland really need to pay for its financial services jobs? A war of words has broken out in Scotland after the SNP-led administration awarded £6m to US investment bank Morgan Stanley, as long as it creates 600 jobs in Glasgow. The handout from the Regional Selective Assistance scheme, which amounts to £10k per job, was blasted by both opposition politicians and groups who look into how taxpayers' money is spent,... Read more