eFinancialCareers

Scottish financial firms have finally had a reality check and admitted they need to reduce employment numbers after all. In the latest industry survey by Scottish Financial Enterprise, 19% of financial institutions reported a drop in headcount in Q4 of 2007 – up from 7% last time around. Firms looking to bolster their teams this year fell by 11% to 35%, and 46% expect headcount to remain stable. “These quarterly results... Read more

As Scots plans for a local income tax steam ahead, recruiters have begun warning of the dire effect it could have on jobs. One recruiter says the tax proposals, introduced by the SNP as a replacement for council tax, will spell the death of Scotland’s financial services industry. William Finlayson of Scottish search firm Finlayson Wagner Black agrees: “People would think twice about taking up opportunities. The pool of talent... Read more

Scotland’s about to be ravaged by a new breed of global competitor. An ill-prepared and under-qualified workforce won’t do it any favours. At a briefing organised by Scottish Financial Enterprise, Trevor Hatton, managing director, Scotland, at Accenture, peered into his crystal ball to paint a picture of financial services north of the border in 2018. Out of the mists he saw new threats appearing from emerging markets like Dubai, Poland, Mexico... Read more

HBOS has cut bonuses for its top brass for 2007, but may have made it easier for them to earn payouts in 2008. In its annual report for 2007, the bank admitted that its growth had slowed, and said it had slashed short-term cash bonuses for its executives from 69% in 2006 to 46% last year. It also revealed that it would not be paying anything out from its long-term incentive... Read more

HBOS has brushed off sub-prime concerns and announced it’s set to open a global office in Edinburgh. It’s been a turbulent week for the Scottish bank, which blamed the global credit squeeze for a 4% fall in its profit margin on the previous year. However, it only wrote down a comparatively measly £227m in fair value adjustments due to the US sub-prime crisis. Analysts had told us they expected 2008 to be... Read more

Contractors in Scotland may be forced to bite the bullet as financial services firms look to cut back on temps. The temp market has been booming in Scotland over the last year, as soaring headcount requirements and limited talent have forced companies to fill the gaps with contractors. Rates have soared from £250-£300 a day to £350-£400, according to recruiters, which might be the reason the party looks set to end. Steve Shields,... Read more

Plans for a local income tax in Scotland could discourage quality candidates from making the move north of the border. Owen Kelly, chief executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise – which is backed by such financial powerhouses as Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Life – has told the Scotsman that Government plans for local income tax are troubling his members. He said: “Anything that starts to look like we have people... Read more

Forget the difficulty in finding the people for financial services jobs, Scotland might struggle to find offices to put them in. Property consultant Jones Lang Lasalle has warned that Edinburgh faces a shortage of office space, but it seems it’s not just space in the Scottish capital that’s in short supply. Scotland is fast becoming the region of choice for back-office roles. Citigroup employs around 235 people in Edinburgh, BNP Paribas... Read more

It’s grim tidings at the big four Scottish financial institutions – and lay-offs look likely as firms seek to slash costs, say analysts. The share prices of Royal Bank of Scotland, HBoS and Aberdeen Asset Management all slumped by around 40% last week, suggesting any hopes of Scotland being isolated from the credit crunch were wishful thinking. Does this mean redundancies are on the cards? Leigh Goodwin, an analyst at specialist... Read more

Education, education, education. The skills shortage in the Scottish financial services market has prompted action at a grass roots level, and its targets are getting younger. The Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland (CIOBS) offers a Certificate in Financial Services in schools, which looks to fast-track pupils into a financial career and is now on its second intake of students. The class of 2006 were the guinea pigs, but last year... Read more

What will be hot and what will not in the coming 12 months? Here’s our verdict… 2008 will be a good year for… Corporate finance The bare statistics don’t make comforting reading. Preliminary figures from insider.co.uk suggest Scottish-only corporate finance deals were a mere £1.44bn in the third quarter of 2007 – down from £5bn for the same period in 2006. However, while the mid-market may have suffered, corporate finance professionals remain convinced that... Read more

What was hot and what was not in Scotland in 2007? Here’s our considered verdict… 2007 was a good year for… Fund management Fund managers in Scotland were defiantly bullish this year: the battle for talent intensified, top names engaged in a game of musical chairs, and profits and revenues increased. Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP), for example, lost its chief executive John Phillips in January, and its head of European equities went to... Read more

In Scotland’s candidate-driven market, is it time to speed up the recruitment process or risk missing out on talent? The typical recruitment process in financial services firms takes at least six weeks, during which time candidates can easily have multiple offers on the table. Existing employers are also likely to counter-offer in a bid to hold on to scarce talent, say recruiters. Fraser McMillan, senior consultant at Robert Half, says: “We don’t... Read more

The proliferation of fund accounting jobs in Scotland is creating a fluid recruitment environment where people are skipping speedily from one job to the next. The past year has seen expansions by BNP Paribas, JP Morgan, State Street, Citi, and BlackRock in the fund accounting space in Scotland, and difficulty finding candidates – together with candidates’ own realisation of their worth – has created a revolving door effect. “Everybody’s recruiting and retention... Read more

Insurance underwriters in Scotland have seen big salary hikes in the last year, as a shortage of candidates drives demand. The latest salary survey by recruiter Joslin Rowe paints a different picture from last year, when broker mergers meant insurers were more likely to lose their jobs than land a large pay rise. But with new firms setting up in Scotland this year – such as Ace Insurance which created 200 jobs... Read more

Scottish financial services workers are more in the dark about their bonuses than any other country, according to our survey. The eFinancialCareers.com global survey, which took in responses from 18,000 financial services professionals worldwide, revealed that a huge 47.4% of Scottish respondents don’t know whether to expect a higher or lower bonus this year. Meanwhile 34.6% anticipate more money than last year, and 17.9% expect to see a slide. The respondents were spread... Read more

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