The Scottish Government would confirm only that the number of new
jobs would be "substantial", saying: "The announcement will be
another positive boost to Scotland's financial services industry,
which employs approximately 95,000 people and accounts for around
8% of the country's GDP."
Although it is understood that initial recruitment will be for
about 350 posts, Mr Salmond will say that grants will be made
available for the creation of up to 600 posts at the new hub, which
will make Glasgow a key centre for Barclays.
The announcement will be another
positive boost to Scotland's financial services industry
The Scottish Government
The
expansion is seen as a success for the work of the Financial
Services Advisory Board. Comprising senior industry figures, trade
unions, the enterprise network and Government, it has been working
to create and protect jobs in the wake of the credit crunch and
banking collapse.
Mr
Salmond will meet Ian Axe, head of operations at Barclays Capital
and Barclays Wealth, and the head of Barclays Stockbrokers, Des
Byrne. Also present will be Anne MacColl, interim chief executive
of Scottish Development International, which works with Scottish
Enterprise to attract global business to Scotland.
Scottish Enterprise administers Regional Selective Assistance,
which is paid out to companies in tranches as they meet targets for
job creation and capital investment. The 600 new jobs would bring
Barclays staffing in Scotland to more than 2000, helping offset the
effects of the downturn.
The
last two years have been a rollercoaster for the sector, usually
involving big job losses followed by news of fewer new posts.
The RBS
collapse and take-over by the taxpayer saw some 1300 jobs go in
Scotland, although 200 new posts were created last week at the
expense of a further retrenchment in England and the loss of some
3500 jobs there. Two weeks ago its insurance division DirectLine
announced 440 job losses in Glasgow.
The
HBOS failure and rescue by Lloyds TSB has seen 1000 jobs go in
Scotland, while last week Standard Life announced the loss of 480
posts in Edinburgh. There have also been rumours, denied by the
company, that JP Morgan is about to shed jobs.
Today's
announcement comes amid annual results from Scottish Development
International claiming that its promotional work has been
instrumental in generating more than £500 million of inward
investment.
Ms
MacColl said: "We have hit our targets and are encouraged by the
range of new investment projects we've helped to secure during the
last year, such as those by Skykon, GlaxoSmithKline, Ryanair, Tesco
Personal Finance and Stena. This type of investment has secured
over 5500 planned jobs for Scotland and shows that Scotland remains
attractive to investors across a wide range of sectors."