An appetite to recruit corporate bankers is returning to Scotland

Scotland's corporate banking job market is beginning to look a little less frosty, but if hiring really takes off there are concerns that a lack of talent locally could stem future growth.

Understandably, after a period of muted lending and widespread redundancies north of the border, Scotland's corporate banking sector has been slow to offer new employment opportunities.

And, as we've alluded to previously, many who found themselves out of work have been forced to look outside of the sector for a new position.

But there are some reasons for optimism. HSBC has recently pointed to how it's been building its Scottish corporate banking team on the back of winning new business - albeit at a slower rate than it would like - and Clydesdale Bank's promotion of Alison MacGregor to head up its corporate banking activities is the latest in a series of hires.

In January, the bank unveiled five new recruits to focus on various key market sectors, following on from the appointment of Gavin Slevin and Peter Upton in December.

Obviously, these banks have benefited from the retreats of Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS from the corporate banking market. However, even RBS is recruiting now, but admittedly only for relationship managers to work on problem loans.

Mark Beacom, manager of Michael Page Finance in Scotland, agrees that corporate banking recruitment has picked up over the last six months, but suggests that finding the right people remains a challenge.

"Considering the redundancies in this area, and the fact that the market has been depressed, you'd have thought they'd be no shortage of candidates," he says. "But during the boom time, some people were earning 80-100k base salaries and would have been unable to find anything like that package after redundancy. The result is the sector has lost a lot of skilled labour."

But one senior corporate banker believes there's been a much-needed shake-out of the industry over the last two years.

"It's the 80/20 rule, with 20% of people being the ones that really make things happen. Admittedly it's a challenge recruiting people, but it's now much easier to distinguish between the better bankers and the not-so-good ones," he says. "You need to really know your onions - there's no coasting along on a buoyant market any more."