George Osborne announced a levy on UK banks and foreign banks operating in the UK in yesterday’s Emergency Budget.

The levy, which will not affect smaller banks and building societies, will be brought in from January and is expected to raise around £2bn a year.

Bill Haynes, chairman of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation’s (REC) accounting and finance sector, told Recruiter: “Whilst the levy is certainly not helpful it’s not going to affect recruitment by the banks too much.”

Haynes, who is also chief executive of finance and banking recruiter Verridian, added: “The banks still have their [financial] objectives and they need a certain number of staff to hit their targets. It’s [the levy] something that they can relatively easily absorb.”