But he says for the next generation of financial services businesses, the University of Strathclyde is developing as a centre for fintech. So the skill sets are changing.
Indeed, the SDS report cited skills gaps that the 2022 employer skills survey identified as core areas for the devolved government to focus on.
Baillie Gifford's Budden says another factor that has reduced the level of financial services employment in Edinburgh is the relative demise of the large banks, with both Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Scotland requiring government intervention at the height of the financial crisis.
Both have subsequently reduced the number of people they employ in the capital.
Prior to the global financial crisis, Royal Bank of Scotland had already moved from its location in the centre of Edinburgh to a purpose-built site on the outskirts.
The ties that bind
Martin Gilbert, who founded the old Aberdeen Asset Management, says when he launched that business in his hometown, he preferred the first phase of expansion to happen in London, rather than Edinburgh, “because I wasn’t sure how the folks in Edinburgh would view a firm from the provinces".
That speaks to the view many in markets have had of Edinburgh as being a place where the old school tie and old families prevail.
While the much discussed 'big bang' of financial services in the 1980s may have opened up many of the roles in the City of London to candidates from more diverse socio-economic backgrounds, the impact of this may have been slower to percolate north of the border.
Perhaps the statistic that drives home the nature of Edinburgh as a place is that around 30 per cent of children there go to private school, compared with around 7 per cent for the rest of the UK.
Waverton's Reid says that: "At one time, the school you went to sort of determined which of the firms you worked at. Edinburgh is quite a village really. It punches above its weight as a financial centre, and it is a place where entrepreneurship is encouraged."
Budden, who was born in England and relocated to Scotland to work for Baillie Gifford, says while it was true that there was a well trodden path “from certain schools to Edinburgh University to the banks or other financial services firms, this is much less the case now than in the past, particularly in the asset management sector.
"Quite simply, asset management businesses are far too complex for that, though it may still happen in the wealth management sector to an extent.”
