SUGGESTIONS that financial sector giant Standard Life is poised to quit Scotland have been dismissed by Alex Salmond.

He said the contingency plans announced by the company were a repetition of previous suggestions and all depended on Scotland failing to secure a currency deal or set up its own regulatory system to parallel those in the rest of the UK.

Asked if Standard Life was preparing to pull out of Scotland, Mr Salmond said: "I think that is nonsense, and I'll tell you why. On the way here I came past St Andrew Square, and in the corner you will find a substantial new office block being developed.

"Now I think it's a £90 million development which is being financed by Standard Life ­Investments. That doesn't look like the actions of a company that has any intentions whatsoever of pulling out of Scotland.

"I think we are at a stage in Scotland where people are going to look at scaremongering, shake their heads and say, 'have these people got nothing else to say but this negative doom-mongering when the people of Scotland are looking forward to a more prosperous and fairer society and the ability to have a powerhouse parliament to create jobs?'"

He added: "Standard Life have issued this around three or four months ago in terms of what contingency planning they are doing. Other major figures in the Scottish financial sector are taking exactly the opposite view. They are saying that there are substantial opportunities with independence."

Standard Life chief executive David Nish said: "As we stated in February, and repeated at our half-year results in August, there continues to be uncertainty around a range of issues material to Scotland's future in the event of Scotland separating from the United Kingdom."

He said these included currency, taxation, EU membership, and the arrangements for financial services regulation and consumer protection in an independent Scotland. He added: "In view of the uncertainty around Scotland's constitutional future, we have put in place precautionary measures which would help enable us to provide customers with continuity."

Meanwhile, Bank of England governor Mark Carney has ­indicated that an independent Scotland would have to raise billions more pounds in additional reserves to ensure financial stability.

Any move by Scotland to keep the pound through a system of "sterlingisation" would require large currency reserves in order to act as a lender of last resort.

Speaking to MPs on the ­Treasury select committee, a guarded Mr Carney said contingency plans were in place, adding that Scottish banks had access to Bank of England facilities and Scottish deposits were backed by the financial services compensation scheme.

Mr Carney suggested Scotland may have access to about £15 billion of reserves but most countries that had adopted foreign currencies required at least 25 per cent of GDP to fund a ­credible lender of last resort.

As Scotland's GDP is estimated at £146bn, this would require the country to raise an additional figure in the region of £20bn.

Asked by committee chairman Andrew Tyrie whether this would have to be achieved through higher taxes or lower spending, Mr Carney said it was not his place to get into discussions about fiscal policy.

l Professor Ronald MacDonald of Glasgow University claimed that whichever currency option an independent Scotland chose it would come with "a price tag of an austerity programme."

The professor of political ­economy said: "The only currency option that maximizes the benefits and minimizes the costs of independence is that of a separate currency."

He claimed separate currency was the only option financial markets would find credible, but predicted an austerity programme would be needed to gain credibility with international markets."