This is not the end of a war, with its devastating human consequences. It is just the end of a bank. No-one has died; countries have not been torn apart. And yet, as the HBOS flag is lowered for the last time on the Mound some time this weekend, there will be – and should be – an air of sadness around.

Some would say that a great Scottish institution, the Bank of Scotland, effectively died when it was "merged" with the Halifax eight years ago.

There was something in that. Much of the old building society "action" took place in Yorkshire. And HBOS executives spent a fair amount of their time in London.

Nevertheless, the headquarters was formally in Edinburgh and substantial numbers of senior staff remained in the Scottish capital.

Lloyds Banking Group, as the new bank is to be called following the shotgun tak

Yes, we will see Archie Kane, the head of Scottish Widows and the main board member at the new company (Scotland's man in London or London's man in Scotland?) decamp to the Mound on Monday.

He will be followed at some point by Susan Rice, the managing director for Scotland "eventually", as The Scotsman reports today, though this tardiness on Ms Rice's part is passing strange.

And the operations of the new group, which takes over the Lloyds portfolio north of the Border, will be branded Bank of Scotland.

But for all of that, there is no disguising the fact that Scotland has lost a significant independent financial institution.

And the effect on the country as a whole, and in particular on Edinburgh and East central Scotland, has yet to be fully felt.

Currently within the new institution they are trying to sort out who does what and who gets what jobs.

The most senior posts, at board level, have gone to Lloyd's people. In the next rung down there are more HBOS-ers.

And the process of sorting out what will happen below that is continuing.

Inside HBOS the experience has taken on a wry nickname. Have you, colleagues are asking each other "been horsed", a reference to the Lloyds equestrian logo.

The phrase, though used in irony, carries overtones of an element of force being applied and of some pain. And it cannot be otherwise.

For the savings, "synergies" is the business new-speak word used, that the want, something like £1.5 billion, can only be achieved by cutting staff, including senior and well paid staff.

And that is what will have a devastating impact on the Scottish economy and its capital in particular.

The Scotsman's story by my colleague Jane Bradley earlier this week that there will be no bonuses at HBOS corporate this year is only the tip of the iceberg.

There will also, it is certain be job losses at HBOS and it is likely there have already been some discreet shedding of posts.

If that is happening at HBOS now, it may well soon happen at RBS, both in terms of cutting or ending bonuses and in terms of possible job losses.

Stephen Hester the new RBS chief executive will reach the end of the first stage of his review of the Gogarburn bank next month.

Will everyone survive? Very unlikely.

Not only will there be job losses and income reductions at these two institutions, but there is a knock on effect to other areas of business.

Accountants, lawyers, taxi firms, restaurants, hairdressers, holiday firms, private schools, cleaners and many more will be hit.

They will all suffer from the contraction in the financial services and in the spending power of their employees.

Edinburgh, once famous for the "you'll have had your tea" parsimony experienced a quiet spending boom over the past decade even if that spending was not as ostentatious as in other cities like, well, London.

The full effect of "You'll have had your bonus" era is yet to be fully felt, or appreciated.

We may not be sounding the last post over Edinburgh's financial services industry but there will be one sound that we hear more than others this year: it will be a lament.