eFinancialCareers

Things are looking grim at Scottish giant HBOS. Not only are its cheeks burning from a £4bn rights issue that left 62% of shares on the underwriters’ books, but it has announced plans to axe 650 jobs in its business banking division over the next 18 months. What hope is there for Scotland’s out of work bankers?

The job losses are likely to result from the merger of two business banking divisions – it’s bringing its 1,000-strong business banking arm together with its commercial business arm, which is part of the corporate division – and will be across the UK.

A further 350 employees are likely to be redeployed within the firm. This follows on from the 90 redundancies in May.

The bank said: “The aim is to achieve this through further redeployment, voluntary severance and normal turnover in accordance with the job security agreement.”

Is Scotland’s business banking sector buoyant enough to absorb an influx of candidates on to the job market? Sadly not.

David Bond, director of Edinburgh-based headhunter Cairns Bond, says: “It’s going to be very tough, considering there’s going to be a large volume of people coming onto the jobs market with similar skill-sets in an industry that’s currently relatively depressed.”

But there are some opportunities, says Colin Grieve, managing consultant at Head Resourcing in Edinburgh: “Obviously, the whole market is tightening slightly, but there is still some activity in a number of other banks that have significant operations in Scotland, and this is not confined to the main two players.”

Bond reckons candidates have to remain open-minded: “Of the 90 made redundant from HBOS, those with broader skills can move away from the transactional heartland, some are taking interim roles and others are taking a break over the summer. However, after the latest announcement it’s going to be even tighter with so many more people on the market.”