eFinancialCareers

Cracks are beginning to appear in Scotland’s previously solid financial services industry as it suffered the biggest ever fall in quarterly output. The Scottish government hasn’t exactly been quick out of the blocks to report the slump, only just revealing that financial services suffered an 8.4% decline in the first three months of 2008. The biggest driver of this was the banking sector, which slipped by10.9% in Q1 – and... 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 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 was... 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

You arrive at work. You’re asked for your pass, phone and company car keys. After being accompanied to your desk to collect your belongings in a black garbage bag, you’re escorted from the building. Edinburgh is rife with rumours of redundancies conducted in the mode that symbolised the demise of the “Loadsmoney” boom in the City in the 1980s. Is this the modern picture of redundancy in banking and financial... Read more

Scotland’s companies are still as eager as ever to raise capital, but recruiters say the hiring emphasis is shifting to old hands who can work a difficult market. In London, the value of IPOs fell 90% in the first quarter. But if the UK market’s dropped off the edge of a cliff, no one seems to have told Scotland’s corporates. John Llewellyn-Lloyd, head of corporate finance at Edinburgh’s... 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

Rogue traders and vagabonds yesterday looked to profit by spreading vicious lies about Scotland’s own HBOS. But are things that rosy north of the border? After rumours circulated yesterday about a “liquidity crisis” at Britain’s biggest mortgage lender and Scotland’s second largest bank, HBOS, its share price plummeted by nearly 17%, to a record low of 398p. This wiped £3bn off its market value in one foul swoop. It turned out it... 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

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