Financial and professional services

The financial and professional services industry remains key to the prosperity of the country. It generates exports more than double those of any other sector. The industry supports 2.5m UK jobs, mostly outside London, and contributes nearly £110bn in tax revenue.

The City of London Corporation is committed to a vibrant and thriving City, supporting a diverse and sustainable London within a globally successful UK. As part of this we work to strengthen the UK's competitiveness as the world's leading global hub for financial and professional services. This includes the work of the Policy Chairman, the Lord Mayor and Members, where much of the work of supporting the financial and professional services industry is led by the Innovation and Growth Directorate, and its Director Damian Nussbaum.

The Global City Campaign showcases and promotes the UK’s offer for financial and professional services. Providing a compelling evidence base of research, statistics and partner stories, the campaign aims to attract talent, business and investment.

Representative offices in Brussels, India, and China support work on trade and investment, and fostering cooperation between key partner markets.

Together with partner organisation TheCityUK, we run the International Regulatory Strategy Group (IRSG), a practitioner-led body, which discusses and acts upon regulatory developments at global, regional and national levels.

We co-founded The Centre for Finance Innovation and Technology (CFIT) in 2023 with HM Treasury with a combined investment of £5.5m. The creation of CFIT was a response to the Kalifa Review of UK FinTech to create a body that would unblock barriers to UK FinTech market growth. We continue to champion CFIT and its core output in delivering Coalitions with the ecosystem.

We support and fund a number of organisations that are shaping the UK’s offer on key developments in the financial and professional services sector. These include:

• The Impact Investing Institute, which aims to accelerate the growth and improve the effectiveness of impact investing.
• The Green Finance Institute, the UK’s principal forum for public and private sector collaboration in green finance. The Institute works to accelerate the domestic and international transition to a sustainable, net-zero carbon economy that is also climate resilient.
• Innovate Finance, the trade body for fintech that represents and bring together companies and individuals working in the sector. Its members include firms ranging from the young and entrepreneurial through to the large and well-established.

Keep up to date with our work by subscribing to our monthly newsletter