Will HSBC's Scottish staff escape the axe this time? And is Standard Life cutting too?

Last time HSBC made redundancies, in December 2012, Scotland escaped the worst of the cuts. Will it be so lucky this time?

It emerged yesterday that HSBC is now cutting another 3,167 jobs across the UK. Half of those to go will be senior or middle management, none of its branches are apparently being shut.

So who else is being let go then? Head and back office employees are going to be most hit, says the Scotsman. It points out that HSBC currently employs around 1,290 people in branches in Scotland, and that it operates two big call centres here. Those call centre staff have reason for concern - especially if they are also senior or middle managers. (As if by magic, the BBC points out that HSBC is, indeed, cutting at least 130 people from its call centres in Edinburgh and Hamilton).

Separately, Edinburgh-based Standard Life came out with some very passable interim results this week. The company achieved new business sales of £5bn, down from £5.8bn one year earlier, but above analyst expectations. Standard Life didn't talk about its hiring plans, or intentions for headcount generally, but it did keep emphasising 'efficiencies'.

"We remain confident that we are well positioned to deliver continued strong growth in assets," said chief executive David Nish. "We expect this, together with

improvements in efficiency, to continue to drive an ongoing improvement in financial performance.”

Are efficiencies a euphemism for job cuts? It's been known to happen before.