Despite both HSBC and BNP Paribas reporting rises in profits, the prospect for the UK’s banking sector is mixed, according to Andrew Evans, managing director of Morgan McKinley’s financial services division.

Evans told Recruiter that yesterday’s positive reports do not necessarily mean an enormous rebound in recruitment in the sector.

“BNP Paribas and HSBC have reported good results, as have Lloyds and UBS but the US banks have had fairly bad results.

“The sector as a whole is mixed. In H1, the rebound was greater than what we expect H2 numbers to be.

“There has been a lot of recruitment in investment banking, fund management and private banking but the visibility for Q3 and H2 is not that great due to conflicting reports. There are some good company news like BMW reporting positive results but then you have the issue of spending cuts and sovereign debts in countries like Greece and the potential double dip in the US.”