Where will the Scottish banking jobs be in 2013?

In a tough year for financial services jobs, but Scotland got off relatively lightly. So where should you be looking for jobs in 2013?

'It's been a mixed year,' says Owen Kelly, chief executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise, the representative body for the Scottish financial services industry.

'We’ve seen significant growth, such as the arrival in Edinburgh of financial services software provider Avaloq, which should ultimately lead to an extra 600 jobs.'

While RBS cut nearly 3,000 UK jobs, it's group centre, which includes a large number of people in Edinburgh, increased headcount by 600 in 2012.  Tesco Bank is still hiring in Edinburgh and Virgin Bank is growing steadily.

However, it was not all sunshine. Clydesdale, Citigroup and standard Life all announced job cuts.

In business services, hiring remained more or less flat but was still happening. Allan McGrath, partner at PwC Scotland told eFinancialCareers in October: “We expect to maintain ongoing recruitment levels, anticipating 15-20 new hires from associate to more senior positions over the next six months.”

The new jobs will be mainly in risk, regulation and IT, and spread across the PwC offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

In insurance, hiring looks set to remain steady given ongoing demand for account execs and handlers at broking firms, and claims handlers specialising in employers’ liability and public liability. People with actuarial, IT and risk skills are likely to remain in demand.

So where should you be looking for roles in at 2013?

'I think the banks will continue to consolidate, but I foresee growth in asset servicing, asset management and professional services jobs, driven by regulatory change which increases the need for risk and compliance and IT specialists,' says Kelly.

He also expects to see more companies setting up in Scotland to on the back of regulatory changes.

While agreeing that IT, risk and compliance skills will remain in demand, Andrew Welsh, head of financial services at Change Recruitment Group in Edinburgh also sees other possibilities.

"We are seeing more demand from platform providers and developers for people who can sell IFAs  the concept of their platforms and provide aftercare, but whether this will result in new vacancies is unclear, because people previously in direct sales may be moving into these roles," he says.

Welsh also sees growth in demand for valuation and supporting roles in qualified fund accounting at asset servicing and fund management firms.

''There is still plenty of regulatory change going on so we expect to see continued demand for contract and permanent project managers," he says.