Edinburgh on road to financial recovery

EMPLOYMENT in Scotland's key financial services sector has grown in the past year despite the fallout from the financial crisis that has seen Edinburgh-based banks slash thousands of jobs, official figures yesterday showed.

Edinburgh's financial services sector has gained about 4,000 jobs while Glasgow has lost about 3,000 finance jobs in the past year, according to the Scottish Government's corporate sector statistics.

The statistician's report revealed Edinburgh's "financial intermediation" sector employed 42,540 in 370 firms in the year to March. This compares to 38,650 employed by 370 companies in 2009 and 37,860 jobs in 315 companies in 2007 - before the crisis.

Employment in the sector in Glasgow fell by more than 3,000 to 22,060 in 395 firms, from 25,350 in 405 firms in 2009. This compares to 25,340 jobs in 2007.

Owen Kelly, chief executive of trade body Scottish Financial Enterprise, said the statistics were a "blunt instrument", especially with regards to the apparent transfer of jobs from Glasgow to Edinburgh, which he said may be due to reassignment of headquarters or reclassification.

But he said: "Given the difficult market conditions still out there, and given the continuing uncertainty in the economic outlook, these are encouraging figures."

He said the net jobs boost was likely to have been in asset servicing operations of financial service firms such as Barclays Wealth, BNP Paribas, Blackrock and HSBC, which have all been expanding "aggressively".