eFinancialCareers

The expansion of Scotland’s financial services sector has been one of the success stories over the last few years, but now it seems job losses facing the industry could drag down the wider local economy. Job fears within banking in Scotland are growing, and an over-reliance on the financial services sector in the country means that at least 50,000 (but as many as 117,000) jobs across all industries could... Read more

This time last year, with the influx of new players in the Scottish market and a pronounced skills shortage, staff in the fund administration space were able to command steep salary rises as companies competed for their services. Has the picture now changed? The main concern in the financial services sector generally in Scotland, it seems, is the degree of uncertainty over the fate of the market and this has... Read more

As the gloom surrounding Royal Bank of Scotland deepens, new chief exec Stephen Hester’s admission that the bank would have to “cut our cloth” has sparked fears that thousands of job cuts could be on the cards. Hester, who has joined the bank on a salary of £1.2m, has promised to cut costs, and the bank’s new strategic review is looking to focus on areas where it has a competitive... Read more

The HBOS merger saga continues. Only two of the top eight executives at the Scottish bank will join the senior management of the combined entity, which some are viewing as an indication of Lloyds TSB’s intentions for the rest of the work-force. Meanwhile, MSPs have backed calls to keep HBOS independent as fears over Scottish jobs and decision-making grow. The Scottish Parliament is in agreement that the government’s £37bn bailout (sorry,... Read more

Scotland’s fund management community has a new player in town in the shape of Shore Capital, the UK alternative asset class investment manager and ECM focused investment banking group. The firm has hired a team to kick-start its Edinburgh operation and intends to take on new recruits in the Scottish capital going forward. Shore’s new Edinburgh-based team has been lifted out of Landsbanki Securities (UK)/Teathers Limited. Richard Sloss and Andrew Keith,... Read more

Given that Scotland’s two largest banks are part-nationalised, it’s not surprising that the discussions regarding the future of jobs north of the border are the subject of a political barney. One of the clauses in the initial takeover document relating to Lloyds TSB's ingestion of HBOS was that the focus would be on retaining Scottish jobs and Scottish decision-making. With redundancies estimated at anything between 14,000 and 40,000, there’s reason... Read more

When it comes to hiring, Scotland’s investment managers have been relatively bullish throughout this year, but recent redundancies and poor fund performance suggest that cracks are beginning to show. On the face of it, Scottish fund managers are still open to taking people on. Standard Life Investments (SLI) recruited Andrew Millington as investor director for UK equities from Baillie Gifford in September. Meanwhile, Baillie Gifford itself added three to... Read more

While employees at Scotland’s largest banks have been anxiously awaiting news of possible redundancies after government bailouts and rival takeovers, another organisation has been quietly expanding north of the border – Tesco Personal Finance. Tesco bought out Royal Bank of Scotland’s 50% shareholding in its banking arm back in July for £950m, and the firm has been bolstering its team since – mainly in Edinburgh. Former RBS and HBOS man... Read more

A clear favourite has emerged as the next chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland in the form of John McFarlane, who currently sits on the bank’s board as non-executive director. However, a political battle has begun to take shape and other candidates are emerging from the woodwork. The appointment of McFarlane, a Scot who was previously chief exec of Australia and New Zealand banking group ANZ, would ease the sensitivities... Read more

Since Barclays Wealth arrived in Glasgow to set up its operations and technology division in 2007, it’s been recruiting aggressively in Scotland’s biggest city. It’s just recruited 11 senior staff for a new technology venture, and there’s more to come. The firm has created 199 new roles in Glasgow in 2008 alone, taking the number employed in its technology division to 218. The new hires are to focus on developing... Read more

With Royal Bank of Scotland nationalised and HBOS set to be snapped up by Lloyds TSB at a bargain price, concerns are mounting about just how many of the nearly 35,000 jobs north of the border will be for the chop. The chief executives and chairmen of the banks have already left, and RBS looks set to scale back its investment banking and capital markets activities, but the fate of... Read more

It was really a question of when, rather than if, the top brass at Scotland’s largest banks would step down after the escalating problems of recent weeks. Within minutes of one another, both the chief executives and chairmen of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and HBOS resigned after the banks accepted a £37bn government bailout. Last week, RBS denied that it was looking for a replacement for chief exec Sir... Read more

The 3,250 employees housed in Royal Bank of Scotland’s Edinburgh headquarters are understandably on tenterhooks at the moment. With the bank’s market value hitting a new low, and part-nationalisation on the cards, there is unease over what this new lack of independence might mean for jobs. RBS shares took a nose-dive on Tuesday after concerns over its ability to fund itself, and its links with the government’s £50bn rescue package.... Read more

The top brass at Edinburgh based fund manager, Artemis, have sold their stake in the business to majority shareholder Fortis. It was a big pay-day for the firm’s founding quartet, and Fortis has promised to safeguard jobs and preserve the boutique culture. Fortis has made no secret of its desire to sell its stake in Artemis, and the move will give it the freedom to sell the entire firm to interested... Read more

In spite of the problems rocking Scotland’s banks, it seems Edinburgh’s appeal as a place to work remains in tact. Glasgow, however, has slid down the rankings in the latest Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI). There’s a caveat to add to the above statement, though – the cut-off point for the latest survey conducted by research firm Z/Yen, in association with the Corporation of London, was in July, which was... Read more

As the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB looks set to be a done deal, Scottish jobs are, for the time being, the most secure. But this hasn’t stopped employees sending out speculative CVs or industry players pushing for other options. One of the clauses in the formal takeover proposal of HBOS is that “the management focus is to keep jobs in Scotland”, sparking rumours that the bulk of the... Read more

After seemingly going into hibernation post its acquisition by Pearl, Glasgow-based Resolution has suddenly sprung into life. This is good news for its asset management function, but the back office is on the receiving end of some big job cuts. Pearl is expected to lay off around 250 people in its Glasgow insurance office. There will be a total of 500 redundancies in this department across the UK. Meanwhile, it’s... Read more