More redundancies are looming at Scottish banks, but it's really not that bad
After threatening to reach pre-crisis levels again, employment in Scotland's banking sector suddenly looks a lot more precarious.
Lloyds Banking Group is in the midst of another round of redundancies that will eventually see 15,000 jobs lost (a move which will inevitably affect Scotland), RBS is looking at new cost efficiencies and now the bank which recruited while others cut - Clydesdale Bank - now looks set to scale back headcount.
Clydesdale Bank is starting a three-year "efficiencies programme" and, while redundancies haven't been specified, they seem likely according to its head David Thorburn.
"You might get job losses. I would not rule them out. Sometimes [efficiencies] do affect people. That does create job losses from time to time. I don't like it, it's regrettable, but we do not think we can look at volumes or margin [for growth]," he said during last week's results announcement.
It's not yet clear where any job cuts might hit, but so far the mood in Clydesdale is relatively sanguine. One senior corporate banker at the firm tells us that many have been expecting an announcement for months and the admission merely confirms their suspicions.
"The bank took on a lot of high quality people from the larger Scottish banks during the crisis, so the suggestion is that some of the underperformers could go," he says.
On the corporate banking side, we understand that both HSBC and Santander are still hiring, while Barclays' Scottish corporate banking managing director, Ally Scott, has previously talked up its expansion plans.
Elsewhere, despite the talk of redundancies, financial services recruiters in Edinburgh insist that there are plenty of opportunities in Scotland's banking sector.
Aside from the roles that continue to emerge at Tesco Bank, Scotland's two biggest banks are still hiring. RBS, in particular, has been aggressively recruiting for its Scottish HQ and, while the sign off process has become much more onerous, there are still some opportunities at Lloyds north of the border.
