Edinburgh headhunting firm Fletcher Jones is beefing up its core financial sector expertise with the recruitment of Alistair Crawford, who headed operations in the Scottish capital and Manchester for rival Jonathan Wren.

Richard Fletcher, the former fund manager who founded Fletcher Jones in 1984, told The Herald that business was "good" in spite of the global credit crunch as he revealed his company's addition of Crawford.

Fletcher said: "Business is as good as it has ever been for us, which is great, particularly in asset management. (In) banking, there is a bit more of a pause on, I would say, but business is good. The Scottish companies are still recruiting."

The financial services sector has entered a phase of significant job-shedding. Banks around the world have written off tens of billions of pounds as the fall-out from massive default on home loans by US households with poorer credit ratings has taken its toll on global credit markets and the value of securities held by these institutions.

Fletcher qualified his remarks about the ongoing buoyancy of his financial services sector-focused headhunting business by emphasising: "We are not volume recruiters."

He said that, even if a company were to decide on a general recruitment freeze, "usually there is one or two specialist appointments they are looking" to make.

Fletcher also noted that opportunities were created for headhunters if employers felt they wanted different kinds of leaders in tougher economic times.

He said: "There are a lot of arguments that some types of leaders are better in buoyant economies and some are better in more difficult (or) recessionary times."

Referring to further potential opportunities for headhunters when new leaders came in, Fletcher added: "Sometimes they shuffle the team around as well (and create) a bit more movement."

Asked what he thought of recent criticism by Bank of England Governor Mervyn King about the growth of the bonus culture in banks, and the impact of this on the behaviour of those employed in the sector, Fletcher appeared to have some sympathy with this view.

Fletcher cited as one example of a potential problem the possibility that, if bank employees' bonuses were based on selling, this could lead to "bad advice" being given to people in terms of how much they could afford to borrow by way of a mortgage.

While the employee had received an "extra cash payment for selling these (loans) to lots of people", the customer could end up with a "big problem".

He said similar issues could arise in giving advice to companies.

Emphasising the importance of "longer-term relationships", Fletcher added: "There are too many people just trying to live for today and (the) short term and worry about their own bonus."

Referring to bonus culture, Fletcher said: "We (in Scotland) are not as badly into it as London, but it has been growing here."

He noted: "I think, in the Scottish perspective, if you got a bonus in Scotland then usually something above-average or exceptional had happened. You had performed way beyond what was expected whereas, in the London financial sector, many people have got bonuses automatically. It can be for average, or sometimes below-average, performance." Fletcher said, in Scotland, "to get a multiple of your salary" by way of bonus, rather than a fraction, is "still unusual".

He added: "In London, there are plenty of people who have been getting a multiple of their salaries for many years."

Fletcher noted the addition of Crawford, who he said had run Adecco-owned financial recruitment company Jonathan Wren's operations in Edinburgh and Manchester, would increase the number of headhunters employed by his firm to four. Fletcher Jones will employs 10 people in total, including three researchers and other support staff.

Peter Arthur, a former director of Edinburgh Fund Managers and Isis (now F&C) Asset Management, spent about two years with Fletcher Jones.

Fletcher said Arthur, appointed managing director in spring 2007 after spending about 18 months as a headhunter with Fletcher Jones, had left the company last autumn.

Fletcher noted that Arthur had several non-executive directorships.