KPMG veteran David McCorquodale has relocated to Scotland from where he will continue in his role as European head of consumer and industrial markets in the corporate finance division.

He will also be on the lookout for more Scottish deals as the firm becomes the latest to beef up its corporate finance activities.

Last week the Edinburgh investment bank Quayle Munro announced it had hired Rob Cormie from KPMG to take up the newly-created role of managing director of corporate finance based in the city.

McCorquodale, who has been with KPMG for 24 years, was best known in Scotland for his work on deals such as Dawson International's sale of Pringle and the refinancing of Deep Sea Leisure.

He is currently selling overseas businesses for Unilever and BAT. Many have been cross-border deals and he believes that he now has the international contacts to enable him to be based anywhere.

"I am looking forward to working with some of the public companies in Scotland," he said.

McCorquodale, who retained his family home in Scotland while working from London, says KPMG's corporate finance division is holding up well in a generally slow market: "Most of the investment banks are down 50% on last year, entirely due to the credit crunch. Last year was a record for us and we are now about 15% off."