Job cuts on the cards at Scottish banks?

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 Scottish employees still hangs in the balance.

Derek Simpson, joint general secretary for financial services union Unite, said: "Workers in the financial services industry in Scotland are not the culprits of the credit crunch and we are not prepared to allow them to become the victims."

Edinburgh's standing as a financial centre could be severely dented if decision-making drifts south, away from the banks' Scottish headquarters. Scotland is home to 17,600 HBOS workers, with 100 staff in the office on the Mound in Edinburgh, while RBS employs 16,500 people north of the border.

Financial analyst Alastair Cumming, investment manager at Barclays Wealth in Glasgow, reckons jobs could be relocated. He adds: "If the decision-making goes south, it will damage the quality of Edinburgh's authority as a financial market."

Speaking on the BBC's Politics Show on Sunday, first minister of Scotland Alex Salmond said that regardless of market movements this week, the government would "stand up for jobs and decision-making" in Scotland.

RBS has said that the government action would have no immediate implications for jobs. Meanwhile, in the initial HBOS takeover document, Lloyds TSB said it would keep the enlarged group's headquarters on the Mound and focus on retaining Scottish jobs.

But since the terms of the rescue were renegotiated yesterday, concerns over this promise have been raised, with chancellor Alistair Darling saying he was "extremely concerned" about local jobs.