Thousands of bank staff in Scotland will share in a £130m profits windfall, with workers receiving an average £7500 in cash bonuses and share options.

They are among 65,000 employees of Halifax Bank of Scotland who will receive a total of £550m in shares and bonuses.

Many of the bank's 17,000 staff in Scotland will receive thousands of pounds leading to expectations of a mini spending boom in the country's main cities.

The payouts come after HBOS, the bank formed by a merger of Halifax and Bank of Scotland, announced full-year profits of £5.71bn.

With around a quarter of the workforce based in Scotland the payouts are expected to fund major purchases with shops and the service industry the main beneficiaries.

Ron Hewitt, chief executive of Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, said it was great news for Edinburgh and Scotland.

He said: "Bank of Scotland has 9000 staff in Lothian and Fife and there is a lot of happy people today.

"Inevitably there will be more spending. Some will save it and it will go back to the bank but we expect the retail and leisure industries to benefit. The financial sector has been booming and the cash is coming from a major international deal which benefits everyone."

The HBOS windfall is broken into three parts with the overall £550m split into an annual cash bonus, free shares and existing staff share schemes. Employees will share a £270m cash bonus - almost £50m more than last year - which will be included in March salary payments. The amount is performance related dependent on staff achieving objectives set with their managers.

In the next few months staff at the bank, which is the fifth biggest in Britain, will receive free HBOS shares worth between £500 and £3000 with a total value of £70m, based on 5% of their salary, however they cannot access the shares until 2010. Also two staff share schemes will pay out £210m.

As well as the staff windfall, around 163,000 small shareholders in Scotland, most of whom are customers, will receive a £240 cash bonus.

David Fisher, HBOS director of group human resources, said: "This recognises the hard work our thousands of colleagues put in day after day helping our customers."

Union leaders issued a brief joint statement on behalf of Amicus and Accord members.

It read: "Our members have worked hard to achieve this payout. We're pleased our members will be sharing in the success of the company following on from the excellent recent agreement on job security and pay for 2007."

HBOS is the latest financial institution showing huge bank profits and lucrative bonus deals and comes a day ahead of Royal Bank of Scotland, which is expected to announce profits in excess of £9bn today.

Last year RBS announced staff would share in £232m in bonus payments with 113,000 receiving 10% of their salary.

Other banks including Clydesdale and Barclays do not break down their staff remuneration costs into salaries and bonuses.

The HBOS windfall follows a 56.5% rise in HBOS shares over the past three years.

The country's leading banks have been criticised for cutting jobs and charging customers while reporting record profits.

Halifax account holders face a charge of £39 if their balance cannot cover a transaction and £28 for an unauthorised overdraft.

Total profits in the banking sector in Britain are expected to be more than £40bn for 2006.

Last week Barclays announced a profit of £7.1bn and the Royal Bank of Scotland is expected to top that today.

The HBOS figures also revealed an increase in bad debts of £1.74bn from £1.6bn last year. Unsecured loans on credit cards was the main concern and a growth in personal insolvencies has led to the bank being cautious about future trends.

An HBOS spokesman said: "We remain optimistic about the UK economy with a generally benign business environment supporting growth.

"We continue to be cautious, however, about unsecured lending given the cumulative impact of rising interest rates, utility prices and consumer indebtedness."