01 July 2017

ICAEW: Good for UK, good for Europe

As the world’s leading financial centre, London serves as a gateway to Europe for global investors and a gateway to the world for European businesses looking to expand and invest overseas, claims Lord Mayor Andrew Parmley.

As the world’s leading financial centre, London serves as a gateway to Europe for global investors and a gateway to the world for European businesses looking to expand and invest overseas, claims Lord Mayor Andrew Parmley.

In the UK, financial and related professional services industries employ more than 2.2m people in highly skilled jobs, and contributed more than £71bn in taxes to the national purse in 2015, more than any other industry.

More than two thirds of these are outside of London, with tens of thousands of high quality jobs in centres like Bristol, Manchester, and Edinburgh. Keeping all our financial centres strong will be crucial in ensuring financial inclusion and prosperity across the entire country.

Financial services is undisputedly an area where the UK leads the world, generating a monumental trade surplus of more than $110bn (£87bn) in 2015, a large amount of which was with the EU. To put this trade surplus in context, this is more than the combined volumes of the next four financial services exporting countries: US, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Singapore.

As Europe’s only global-scale financial centre, it is vital that we come to a deal with the EU, based in mutual regulatory recognition and two-way market access, as well as maintaining the UK as a country open to the best and brightest from around the world.

As the world’s leading financial centre, London serves as a gateway to Europe for global investors and a gateway to the world for European businesses looking to expand and invest overseas. Maintaining its function is good for the UK and good for Europe. [...]

Full article in ICAEW

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