I work in a private bank in the channel islands (I know, I know...). The main impact that I've seen is the slowdown in annual bonus/salary rises. I'm also in the process of fighting for a promotion and a few years ago it would have been passed without question.

Seems to me like (at least in the banking industry) IT is rarely the business area that gets excess funding. When times get hard, it's probably going to be the last department that gets cutbacks. That and the fact that we're seen as providing mission critical infrastructure that directly impacts core revenue streams. I'm sure that's probably not the case in every sector or geographical area though.