For the release of the City of London Corporation’s 4th annual benchmarking study, we welcomed an expert panel to discuss the international competitiveness of the UK’s financial and professional services (FPS) industry.
With thanks to:
Chris Hayward, Policy Chairman of the City of London Corporation
Danny Lopez, CEO, Glasswall
Neylin Mutlu, Global Business Manager – Corporate Advisory & Sustainable Solutions, JP Morgan
and Claire Tunley, CEO, Financial Services Skills Commission
Morning ladies and gentlemen I’m Chris Hayward the policy chairman and political leader of the city of London Corporation and I’m delighted to welcome you all to what is an important day in the city corporations calendar today we launch our annual Global offer to Business Report also known as our Global benchmarking
Report before I begin can I just give you a polite reminder that today’s event is being recorded and may be shared on our digital Platforms in the future there will be plenty of time for questions with our outstanding panel of experts so please do post any questions
That you want to ask in the Q&A box and if you have any technical difficulties please ask a question and our technical team will try to resolve it for you wherever possible now the fourth edition of our Global offer to Business Report is an opportunity to compare the leading
Global Financial Centers see where they Excel and indeed where they can be better it’s an opportunity to see how Global Financial Centers are performing over time where and how they change their focus and their offer and crucially it’s an opportunity for us here in London to hold ourselves
Accountable and improve you could call it an annual mot if you will of how we are performing and this independent review of international competitiveness uses 101 metrics which you will see embedded throughout the report and we believe that this data can give you businesses and policy makers greater information to shape your decision
Making I know from my own personal experienes someone who built their own businesses from the ground up that high quality data gives confidence to those decisions that really matter for firms with global reach looking to to invest for the Financial and Professional Services sector looking to best practice for countries and
Companies looking at how to improve this report gives answers now since our first report there has been a great deal of change a pandemic Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and resulting energy shock a cost of living crisis and more geopolitical events and the range of factors has made for challenging
Economic conditions a challenge has been felt globally London does not stand alone New York Singapore Frankfurt Paris Hong Kong and Tokyo are all facing the same economic pressures and our benchmarking report shows that over the past year that it is London that has best adapted to the challenge
And indeed we are back at the top globally crucially London made great strides improving its Regulatory and legal environment the groundbreaking financial services and markets act legislation which the city of London Corporation supported together with the Edinburgh reforms unblocked bottlenecks and allowed final Financial activity to flow
And this is proof that good things happen when the public and private sectors work together in Partnership but despite this welcome news London cannot afford to stand still we must press forward with further reforms the city of London corporation’s vision for economic growth recommends policy designed to strengthen the entire United Kingdom’s International
Competitiveness to 2030 and indeed Beyond it is the result of convening over 300 Financial and Professional Services Partners many here today so thank you and crucially it has cross party political support working together we can ensure that London Remains the world’s preeminent Financial Center for many years to
Come it’s now my pleasure to hand over to our next speaker this morning indeed the author of our benchmarking report aliser way to talk through the reports findings in further detail so Alistair over to you thank you Chris good morning everybody thank you for joining us uh
I’m just going to talk through the sort of main headlines before we move on to to our panel uh as Chris just said we’re very happy that we retained our top position uh in the uh Global uh benchmarking report as you can see from
The uh bars on the left hand side all of the Financial Centers that we study uh lost the points in uh TW uh in this year’s report but London uh only lost one point whereas uh the other Financial Centers uh declined further what drove those results well London score fell by
One point uh as the decline in Capital Market activity was offset by improvements in regulatory environment and the access tent to access to talent and skills Dimensions uh London now ranks top in talent and skills and second across all the other dimensions and that consistency then uh leads to an overall number one
Rank uh New York score declined as the Capital Market uh activity and investment activity declined uh that large uh increase 2021 uh during covid then uh then declined in 2022 and our system scores direction of travel as well as the absolute size so these are some of the new
Metrics that we added in 20124 we looked at office vacancy rates as you see the chart uh shows that London has uh reasonably low office vacancy rates uh compared to the some of the other Financial Centers that’s uh that changes across the city so the West End has a
Lower vacancy rate than the city which has a lower vacancy rate than Canary wolf business complexity which shows the difficulty of international firms setting up in the market uh the the UK is ranked as one of the least complex uh business uh markets to uh to open a new
Business our gender gap which is Broad measur of equality Visa accessibility so we we know that Visa costs for the UK are high but getting a Visa is is a lot simpler than in the other some of the other Financial Centers uh which allows movement of people from in your
Organizations and pension quality so pensions are of course a financial benefit uh to to workers and uh they uh improve quality of life uh overall so uh the UK actually has uh one of the best pension systems in the world so looking at Financial activity particularly uh so you can see the gray
Bar uh New York is where that decline was observed uh this year uh obiously uh Equity markets in the US have have recovered in 2023 uh so that may be reflected in the in the future uh you can see London and New York way ahead of the uh other Financial
Centers uh trading volumes and market account fell across all asset classes uh with the exception of Foreign Exchange uh in 2022 uh we saw a decline in uh in in fund AUM and uh and uh and others but uh London leads in uh Services export international bond trading uh and and uh
Issuance crossborder banking FX and derivatives trading into the onto the regulatory environment as Chris just mentioned uh the improve the introduction of financial service markets Act and the Edinburgh forms uh improved London score we can see decline there in Singapore score uh in this year’s analysis uh the UK’s regulation
Environment is highly regarded across around the world and is has ranked as one of the most least complex business environments and we score well in metrics related to openness move movement of people and capital but we do lose out uh due to high taxes and talent and skills as I mentioned
This is our top where we rank top this year cover 22 metrics across skills and hiring uh International Talent quality of life we score well on quality diversity uh we have a lot of uh International talent in London and uh we have an excellent higher education system Improvement we can uh is required
Though in employee training particularly and uh and we have a decline in uh Financial Services relevant graduates Visa costs as I mentioned are high but the uh attractive attractiveness to International International tent is improving so with that I will hand over to Daman who will introduce our panel
And uh thank you very much for joining us thank you very much indeed aliser that’s a fantastic introduction and thanks also very much to our policy chairman Chris for his uh introductory comments so we’re delighted that you’re able to join us for for the launch of our this which is our fourth annual
Benchmarking report or to give its full title our Global offer to business London and the UK’s competitive strengths supporting economic growth there’s a fantastic panel um who are going to lay out for us some of the insights that the um report has has brought out and I’ll just take you
Through them um there is CLA tuny CEO of the financial services skills commission um which launched in 2020 in partnership with the city Corporation and the city UK we have Nan mutlu um Global business manager for corporate advisory and Sustainable Solutions at JP Morgan and we have Danny Lopez the CEO of
Glasswall both nen and Danny are part of the vision for economic growth steering board and many thanks for their contributions there as we heard from Chris and alist London Remains the top Global Financial Center in the world and and although all the financial centers in the Ates saw a decline in financial
Market activity um London improved its scores in two key areas um regulatory environment and talent and skills and so we’ve got a real chance to um dig into some of those as as we um turn to the panel in the mo in a moment so CLA
Perhaps I can come to you first um I wonder if we can we can dig straight into talent and skills so the the report shows that London now ranks top in terms of talent and skills it’s it’s clearly an area where um the UK Financial Services industry has improved and and
Indeed the fssc can take credit um for some of that Improvement can you tell us how the financial um professional service industry has succeeded in attracting and retaining Talent thanks Daman and yeah no thanks for giving us the credit of of switching the indicator
I think we can take some of it but not all um so the we work with 42 firms in financial services in membership and a lot of the issues and and um insights we’re we’re working with apply to Professional Services as well so they are they are read across um read across
There um I think the in the last few years we’ve seen a real focus on the the importance of skills and talent and the people um in the industry to weather the shocks and and the uncertainty that we see but also um to to provide and drive that Innovation and competitiveness um
And I think when we look at it from a commission with our members we we look two sides to this and the maturity of the the conversation over the last few years sort of gives an insight into how firms are taking this really seriously so we very much look at the skills that
People need to have the knowledge they need to have to be able to do their job to add value um to really differentiate um what they’re doing but also who the people the demographic angle here and who are doing those jobs why do they want to come here what do they want to
Have as a renumeration their package and that’s always changing these things are always moving um when we look at the skills um that that people need to have Tech skills not a new area um very much still need data analysts software developers um cyber Security Professionals um AI automation is much
Much more higher up the list than it was it’s not brand new it’s always always there um but one of the key things that we find is the behaviors that underpin those skills so relationship management teamwork empathy it’s not just what you know it’s how you apply it how you can
Spot those opportunities and so we see firms really thinking through what does this look like for our business um and that comes quite a nice offer um to people that they can see there’s a much broader piece um that they can plug into and it does link to workplace culture as
Well and I have to say um being able to develop yourself and and progress does become an attractive point for employees um a differentiator if they can see as progression um but we can also see real shifts in the last few years around things like green skills um the number
Of new jobs in the industry that specifically green jobs in financial servic is actually quite low but the um transformation and and sort of shift and pivot for existing roles to understand and work with the issues around Greening green transition Etc green Finance is huge huge and that’s a huge attraction
Point for um for the sector and what we’ve seen is is huge investment from from firms in upskilling reskilling and equipping their employees with that knowledge and capability to to you know to support the pivot towards green Finance so there there are efforts going
On and I think also the we when I talked about the who um the efforts around um broader inclusion diversity uh you know ranking really highly on board University for example is a real positive there have been strong efforts there still more to do um but it’s firms
Of thinking very much more about that package what do people want they want to you know London’s a great city to live in that’s a real differentiator but it’s not all about renumeration it is about the purpose of the business Etc and the green transition does feed into a lot of
That um as aliser said employee training there’s still more to do PIP plan of skilled labor there’s very much um lots of work to do to get the right skills into uh businesses through education and Beyond um and things like Visa costs but we do see there’s a real Collective
Effort around domestic and international efforts on skills and it shows in the data so it’s good La thank you very much for for opening us up on that and it is it’s fascinating what you say about the the depth of skills but also the need for breadth as well to be able to
Actually sew together um uh many of the the different areas people are working on including of course and you you’ve raised already sustainable Finance um skills and that that actually is is something that is um threaded through many roles um as well as being um a key
Component of some so so naan if we can turn to the area of sustainable Finance um our analysis shows the UK has a strong appetite for sustainable Finance with UK companies committed to ESG policies and net zero right through to investors allocating to Green investment
Funds and I I wonder if you could set out for us what the benefits are for the UK economy through broadening sustainable finance and and why you think it’s it’s it’s happening now thank you Damian um for having me today and um listen we actually have
Outlined uh in quite a lot of depth the benefits of sustainable Finance in the report that was published in September vision for economic growth but just to kind of honing in a couple of key um points to answer your question sustainable Finance is a major long-term opportunity for the United Kingdom and I
Really want to underline the word long-term uh sustainability transition is here to stay growing uh our green businesses is here to stay and all of this has potential to scale business and jobs in strategically important sectors across the whole country and why now uh sustainable Finance can contribute
Significantly to to Growing the UK economy across all regions while also helping to deliver better outcomes for the environment and Society balanced actions will be needed to create the conditions to scale and accelerate Finance for the transition and to better enable financial institutions like us to facilitate capital and provide expertise
To help companies realize their transition and sustainability objectives and given the topic of today’s um panel is really about UK’s comp competitiveness and how we can maintain and grow it for this country to maintain and increase its competitiveness as the transition progresses it will be important to hone in on where more
Investment is needed where what are the specific projects and businesses that need that support and how the country the United Kingdom can use its Global position to create the enabling conditions both domestically and internationally to ensure the building blocks are are in place for those projects to happen the United Kingdom
Has the ambition and as Claire just mentioned the talent and skills and also the enabling business environment to be a leading Financial Center for scaling Innovation that accelerates the energy transition and contributes to sustainable and inclusive growth uh in the country great thank you very much I I
Think it’s that practicality the way that that we actually have to translate some of the um High ambition into deploying capital in in order to see businesses grow and Net Zero being achieved that you bring out there um another really um key area for future growth and indeed it’s actually the
Fastest growing employment sector in in the certainly within the square mile is is Tech um so so Danny the the benchmarking report shows on the one side UK Tech it’s it’s it’s the top ecosystem in in Europe fantastic but it still has some way to go to um catch up
The US and we’re seeing lots of progress elsewhere um in the world and and across Europe too so what do we need to do here to take Tech and Innovation to to the next level thanks Damen and um and congratulations to um to Alistair to you
Um to Chris and to the team for for this report which is which is extremely important so look I think on on Tech we have much to be proud of clearly uh we have a a really really solid story across fintech and and if you look at
Each of the um verticals within fintech whether it’s payments and lending and asset management and digital Banking and you know the list goes on you know we we have become in many ways global leaders we all Marvel at the statistics around the amount of funding that is raised
Within fintech and how over the last 12 months that that amount was greater than the next 13 cities in Europe put together so you know there’s so much there to to be to be proud of but I think also in Tech you know we’re reminded of of all those Tech Giants who
Were leaders and all of a sudden you know in a very short space of time the world changed and they went from leaders to to to obscurity and and of course the sorts of names that we think of there we always use the examples of Nokia and
Blackberry and there are a lot of lessons there and I’m not suggesting in any way that that’s going to happen to uh to to London but I think it’s important to remind ourselves that particularly in this space the needs to constantly monitor the market dynamics and also make sure that we are adapting
To to change are absolutely key so look for me there are a number of things that we’re doing very well right now which I’ll go through very quickly so you know we should be proud of it but we need to continue to do well and we need to do
Even better in in in each of these and and they’re around having an innovation and growth mindset um in everything that we do that applies to smmes it applies to large companies it applies to government it applies to Regulators making sure that we have a regulatory framework that reallyu encourages Innovation we’re moving
Beyond the headline here you know really getting to the NR of making sure that that Innovation is is encouraged again this is a list of things that I think we’re actually very good at but that we need to continue to be extremely extremely good at and if we drop the
Ball in any of them it would have a massive impact the third for me would be promoting entrepreneurship sounds easy sounds simple sounds like a bit of a cliche but actually that culture of Entrepreneurship we have seen um here in London and across the UK the success
We’ve had over the last decades but that’s a short amount of time and competitors can catch up on that very very quickly so it’s important to continue to make sure that that that entrepreneurship is is promoted great start on crypto fantastic announcements um in 2022 um sort of really really
Showing the world that we mean business in the space and that we can we can provide an incredibly encouraging pathway we need to follow through so that’s fantastic let mentioned Talent it is it is key you know whether there skill package is um the impact of immigration policies all of that comes
Together and we need to continue to make sure that we Foster uh talent and capability leadership in AI you know we we need to talk about AI of course um and and for me this is moving beyond safety which is extremely important and fantastic that we’ve taken a thought
Leadership role in safety but there is far more that we can take a thought leadership role in and really cutch through across all areas of of of financial services and then you know reminder that Tech and financial services it’s not just about financial services it’s about a whole bunch of
Other areas of tech you know whether it could be VR it could be ID um uh management and verification it’s of course cyber security there’s a much much bigger ecosystem across the whole of tech that together allows financial services and financial services technology to to thrive and flourish so
Those to me as I say are a list of ones that we do very well but we need to continue to do even better and then there’s a bit of homework right we’ve seen it in the report um around digital infrastructure for example we actually you know we have to be honest with
Ourselves and we’re not as good as our competitors and so you know if we acknowledge and we realize that the internet speeds that we see are not sufficient we need to do something about it and we need to do something about it fast so overall Damian a really good
Environment but also a realization that we need to act and act fast to make sure that we maintain that position and that we have the vision over the next decade to really take it to the next level fantastic really strong platform but having that vision and then actually
Delivering on is is is going to be key CL um coming back to you the the fssc you you recently um launched the people and Technology Report with PWC and ey I think um and and it shows that closing the sector skills Gap could boost the
Economy and the figure put on it is 500 million pounds a year which is you know pretty impressive stuff there’s a real prize out there but how do we achieve that no thanks Damon yeah the um we did a lot of work over the last year to really dig
Into um some of the skills challenges and and put some quantify them um a little bit more clearly um and I think this sort of underpins a lot of our work that it really has to be around um evidence and data um LED so one of the
The key figures including the one you’ve just mentioned about the potential boost to the economy if we do close skills gaps was actually what is the skills Gap we can always look at vacancies but actually what’s the what’s the Gap that of people’s Proficiency in the roles as
As tasks and and the industry changes so quickly are people’s abilities to um perform at the best level and be as productive as possible in their roles is that keeping pace and we found that there’s a 16% Gap skills Gap so 16% of people in the industry need significant
Upskilling and now that’s not going to close um we’ve got to close that Gap but also keep ahead as Danny’s just really nicely laid out this thing is not static it keeps moving um so agreed you know we need to come up with a plan and deliver
On that plan um and be also be honest about where we’ve got those gaps and really focus in on them because this doesn’t have to be about more and more and more it’s about Skilling and targeting those efforts in the right places um with some clarity um so the
The areas that we developed in terms with with PWC with our members but also with um 45 senior leaders in the industry that we interviewed um so this has got some some real um it’s been socialized quite well um the first thing is making sure that skills and talent
Are integral to strategy um moving away from sort of short-term reactive um recruitment based approaches to more skills planning um and reskilling approaches and we’re seeing that change that is becoming more um pass industry it needs to go further I’ve mentioned about data Leed approaches being really
Clear on what skills are needed so you can Target that it’s not about more training for everyone it’s training in the right place at the right time um then it’s around actually delivering on that that skills development that can be um through a number of areas is that
International talent coming in is that about deep reskilling moving people from parts of the business where those roles won’t be required anymore into areas where there’s demand and retaining the expertise people have and just building augmenting that this isn’t that people’s skills are not relevant they need to be
Augmented um because Talent is scarce right we’re all competing we’re competing with other sectors we’re competing internationally so you building on what we’ve already got is really important um and finally it’s about collaborating um and I think Danny mentioned that you know if we if we do
Work together we can go a bit faster we can go further we can get there together with some real Clarity on what we’re trying to achieve so those are the areas that that we recommended for Action brilliant thanks thanks for laying that out very practical um nen sustainable
Finance right at The Cutting Edge of of innovation um it’s going to be needing the support of um very strong skills and and Training Up uplift is is going to be one kind of key part of that but we’re seeing the commitment across government 4,000 companies committed to Net Zero targets and
Um you know many sectors are going to need to make significant shifts how should industry and government work better together um with financial services to address the challenge of that transition very good question Damian um and it’s you know it and it’s uh it’s it’s important to be quite intentional
Of answering it um listen uh there are real opportunities to decarbonize the economy today which we need to do and we can achieve that by working with not against companies in carbon intensive sectors these opportunities usually require more Capital not less and companies in every sector are going to
Have to char their transition Pathways and in almost every scenario this means investment in new areas IE electric vehicle Supply chains hydrogen pipelines carbon capture and storage facilities these will not be built without additional investment both from large corporations that are transitioning but as well as clean technology companies
You know some of which that Dan is mentioning that are Paving the way to accelerate the transition the role of Financial Services is to facilitate access to Capital and finance that can support the transition of the real economy including those for higher emitting sectors that are not currently
Green we are very focused on working with our clients to provide the expertise and capital they need to advance their decarbonization strategies but finan in support of the transition is of course just one component we can enable and support the real economy’s transition but the ability of companies
To successfully transition is going to be dependent on whether they have economically viable opportunities to decarbonize their businesses and whether they are the right conditions in the real economy and what are these real economy uh enabling conditions just to name a few and I think we will come back
To this theme uh uh again and again first and most importantly is enabling public policy Visionary and credible domestic and Industrial policy framework beyond what has been said today is absolute necessity for us to make this a success and of course following from that we will need clean energy
Infrastructure we will need Innovation and Technology technological advancements that Danny you know has has has very kindly focused on and of course we will need evolution of consumer behavior and demand supportive public policy is key including providing the clarity and commitment around sector specific policies to deliver on those
Net Zero commitments private finance and corporates need policy Clarity in order to invest in the transition we’re going to need a range of policy interventions across sectors to address barriers that various sectors are fa facing today to transition for example with respect to long-term hydrogen of take agreements
And incentives to retrofit steel plants and we need businesses to be part of this conversation I on how to address these barriers last but not least effective collaboration between government Regulators the financial system and across the economy is going to be incredibly crucial to make this a success fantastic for for laying that
Out and that that’s that core need for um policy Clarity and then the collaboration to to deliver on that thank you very much so staying on the the theme of future success but shifting um to to a wider canvas and a really interesting one that comes through the
The benchmarking report um is around um stock markets it’s around listings and indeed um one of the questions that’s come through is is already on this area and just to say to those watching please do um keep those those questions uh flowing because we we’re now um after
This uh question or indeed on this question we’re about to get into some of those questions that that that have come into us so so so Danny I mean we we’ve all seen the the reports the criticisms that you know UK stock market in Decline
Is it you know is it turn around is is that is that true and you know what is it that we can be doing um in order to strengthen what’s going on in terms of the Gap with the us but perhaps it’s also just sort of worth um clarifying
Whether really things are as bad as one would sometimes think if you were just taking the media stories thanks Damen and uh and I’ve just read Nigel’s question too so I’ll I’ll try and um incorporate that in in part of my answer this this is a tricky
One um I am I am forever an optimist in everything I do so I’m going to try and inject uh positivity in in this because I actually think it’s it’s it’s very Justified look I think first of all we have to accept that the IPO Market has
Been comos globally for for for for a year that’s the reality when we’re not alone you know you look at the number of issues in uh in the US and that has obviously declined massively over the last 12 months and you look at new issues across Europe and you know it’s
The same story so I think it’s unfair to single London out on uh on that you know first of all I also think you know just to get some of that part out of the way I I agree with you on the media front you know it’s it’s it’s a great headline
Isn’t it when an absolutely massive company uh and and and you know a number number of National Treasures say you know decide that um the public Market’s future for them is not here and and it’s in the US you know it is it is of course right that everybody knows about that
And reads reads about it um uh but I do think that there’s a much much bigger story um on on this than than that look so first of all let’s a little bit like I asked I started my previous question um let’s start thinking about the
Progress that we have made in this space over the last couple of years because I think it’s fair to say that government and regul have listened um and have also observed what’s been happening in in the US on that front and we’ve seen a number of regulatory reforms announced we had
The hill review um we uh we had the Edinburgh form uh we’ve seen work on bureaucratic hurdles we’ve seen changes in listing requirements we’ve seen an acknowledgement that work has to be done on providing flexibility on listing rules um you know this is all really good positive progress um and uh and
Definitely again not thinking about the today thinking about the next 10 20 years it’s really important work to be able to make sure that when markets come back and you know they will come back we we we’ve all seen multiple Cycles throughout our careers um some like me
More than others um but you know the cycle the Cycles are there and and they’re very real so then I think there are a number of things that we can start doing now to make sure that when the tide turns we’re we’re you know we are
Very well positioned um first of all I think it’s important to actively promote um UK markets in internationally you know everybody’s doing this um and we are competing against not just New York we’re competing about against a number of global players so telling our story internationally is is I think extremely
Important there’s an overall investor education that I think we need to get better at in the UK to make sure that uh we can increase the number of retail investors uh which is which is an important part of of of this journey but making sure that there’s a far greater
Understanding of public markets which are still in in many ways you know I think there’s a lot of demystifying that needs to be done um there’s a tech collaboration with fintech to make sure that all of the advances that we’ve seen in Tech over the last few years you know
Kind of really drill into and and sort of start permeating throughout the actual infrastructure uh we see it with blockchain and settlement and you know so so many other examples that that need to be carried forward but I think if there’s one fundamental point I would I
Would make on on all of this and you know arm is a great example right you know that provided a massive headline last year um and and there something that we all read about but to me the the story here is not about the big players
Um it’s it’s it’s not about you know the one or two companies that are huge and they decide to go to New York the story is about the far greater pool of smmes that you know will grow over time let’s remember that growth and Innovation mindset that I mentioned earlier and
They’ become um the right candidates to access public markets probably a little bit earlier than we’ve been used to over over the last few years and there there no bad thing that that that smaller companies can access those public markets earlier and make sure that we’re providing an environment to nurture them
To help them they can grow in the public markets and when they become of the source of sizes of the big companies that we’ve seen leave they weren’t because you know they will have been supported throughout that Journey they will have been nurtured as I say throughout that journey and what we’re
Doing is we’re encouraging a big cohort of companies to to to progress and and and thrive in the public market think another piece if you look at New York you’ve got two stock exchanges that’s good comp you need competition in everything you know so I think you know
Here you’ve got for growth companies you’ve got aim but you’ve also got Aquis you know important to make sure that that that that Innovation that competition is really is really incourage but my main point is let’s focus Less on the huge big companies that make those headlines when they make
That decision and let’s focus more on the you know very large number of smaller companies that need to be helped to access those public markets encouraged and uh and supported if we get this ride this is not about 202 2024 or 2025 this is about the next day
Decade to the next couple of decades and then my final my final piece on this just to answer um the you question is around rankings and with I think rankings can be very dangerous sometimes you know we just sort of we come up with a ranking who’s number one who’s number
Two who’s number three you have to have them because you’re analyzing so much in a benchmark but you know they come together and they offer some results but the key is is less about the position in the ranking is more about understanding you know why why why you’re in that
Position and all the various components which is I think the discussion that we’re having today fantastic Danny really eloquent overview and and I think that that call to be you know careful about um rankings because actually it’s what underpins them it’s the direction of travel and and I think your your
Point there about the focus on smmes which of course we worked on um particularly through the um mansion house Compact and looking to get you know far more institutional investment into um uh growing growing tech companies is is going to be part of that story over the next um five to 10 years
So so um another question that’s come in is um really interesting one around the impact of London’s uh I I will quote the question of London’s crazy housing market we’re not taking a view on one whether London’s housing market is crazy or not but that’s the question’s view
But the I think there’s something really key here about the the impact of of housing prices on Recruitment and Retention of of Staff in London but actually um and it may be worth bringing in the whole of the UK because you know actually our UK Financial and Professional Services is a uk-wide
Offering um CLA is this one one that you could take sure um yeah and we we’ve not done specific work looking specifically at the link between housing and and Recruitment and the talent Market but this is something that does come up because people people need to live somewhere they need to commute somewhere
Broadly um lar we all have an office somewhere still even though we might not be in it as often as we were before the pandemic um and this is something that firms are mindful of very much so and also the preferences of people to um work in a different location whether
That be um further in the UK internationally um and sort of have that agreement to work remotely um you we must remember that two-thirds of roles in the industry are based outside of London um London’s the roles in London tend to be more highly skilled and more highly renumerated this is in Financial
And Professional Services but we can’t divorce um what we do in London from the services and supply chain and the whole cost of living and the ecosystem in London Hospital ity retail service Industries Etc um so there’s certainly an impact and firms are mindful of that
I think there’s a real question um for early Talent particularly those at the beginning of their careers are being able to afford um to work in London maybe some graduate roles can be well renumerated but if you’re looking at apprenticeships for example it’s very unlikely you’d get an apprentice to move
To London to be able to to work and live on an apprentice salary so it does have an impact but then I think it’s it’s an interesting question more broadly looking at the the opportunities and and how the UK as a whole the Financial and Professional Services sector Works
Across the UK as a whole because we are seeing firms um really um amplify and up grow their presence across UK’s regions and Nations this was happening before the pandemic um you know movements towards Birmingham but we see you know real exciting centers developing in in Belfast for example great work happening
There and this is not I think traditionally people thought that’s just back office functions it’s not it’s really really high value ad functions um and the talent conversation within that is really live um we’ve just um just a few weeks ago um a report was published by the Yorkshire and the humba Financial
And Professional Services skills commission long title um but you’ll get what it what it does um and that was a grouping of of organizations looking at the skills and talent needs for the sector across the Yorkshire and the Humber and they there’s a real attraction point for the industry there
Saying we have got a lower cost of living people can potentially have a higher cost quality of life I think that’s a little bit subjective but um there’s there’s a real opportunity there they then struggle with things like transport infrastructure um which perhaps isn’t such an issue in London so
These things all have different rankings but undoubtedly um firms are thinking about London as a location to attract the talent they want not only from the housing and lifestyle cost but also from the availability of talent and what decisions to just for example High know top graduates make when they when they
Graduate do they want to come to London look at the cost or do they want stay somewhere else and firms alive to that and they’re they’re moving um operations around in response so it does have an impact CLA thank you very much one one that I suspect we will come back to in
Future years as well um the next question for nen um nen any lessons that we can learn um from International peers on the sustainability side who who do you feel that you know London the UK is competing against and and what can we learn from them
Uh well I I’ll be a little bit biased with my answer because I work for US Bank um but also equally I’m responsible for implementing isg regulations and disclosure requirements in the EU and in the UK so I’ll try to give a little bit of Lessons Learned and you know and from
Pier markets uh that have taken slightly different approaches to enable sustainable finance and enable Capital flows towards the transition um if we if we look at the US the inflation reduction act definitely had a very created a very positive momentum and it is a public policy
Example in terms of how to support and incentivize green businesses and green jobs across the whole of e of the economy through tax incentives and other mechanisms and we have seen quite a lot of activity uh after the inflation reduction act in terms of U you know business growth job
Creation across states in the US that traditionally uh you would assume uh will will uh not necessarily be that supportive of of this sort of um you know trans transition of their main economic um uh uh opportunities if we look so the inflation reduction act and
What the US has done around it I think it’s a an example that is worth uh you know uh analyzing and looking at the benefits and upsides it is providing for the the economy but also job creation on the other hand if you look at the
European Union um the jury is still out whether you know the regulatory uh and supervisory um framework and expectations around that in terms of labeling disclosures uh the level of complexity and prescriptive uh across um you know the the various um uh green agenda regulation that has been
Uh coming out uh in that um in that region in the C last couple of years actually is creating the real enabling conditions to direct capital uh flows towards uh sustainable finance and green businesses is is still uh I think uh subject to debate uh so I do think it
You know in terms of Lessons Learned both um both uh peers or both markets provide you know clear I think uh examples of uh level of differences that you know they have taken in accelerating the transition and growing uh the green economy uh but also you know what the consequences of these policy
Interventions and Regulatory interventions have been so far and it’s quite you know clear clear um examples uh of uh of you know and and and we we all experience it uh of uh what works and what doesn’t work that well great thank you very much um question coming for for um Danny and
Perhaps some CLA may want to add something at the end as well um it it it really feels as though the industry is is on the cusp of of some very significant changes whether it’s around Tech or some of the sort of political and Regulatory environments over the
Next you know year or two what do we need to really get right in the short term to to take advantage of that longer term cycle um well look I think in in in a way we’ve we’ve we’ve covered some some of those today but it’s it’s important
To um to to recap and and emphasize their their importance so we’ve talked about investing in technology and Innovation and I think danger with a lot of these is that you know we we we’re a good many times at coming up with a headline it’s it’s the really you know
This the key is in in execution so so we need to put a lot of work into understanding what what what that means you know how how we make sure that startups research and development collaboration between industry and Academia that continues to be extremely strong that all the right resources are
Allocated to as I mentioned earlier um the much wider uh overall kind of cusp of what is all about not just fintech but AI um thinking about re Tech cyber security Quantum VR ID management verification you all of that so so really getting that that Tech Innovation
Piece right you know what follows from there is of course making sure the regulatory environment is is able not just to adapt with that change but is able to foresee that change so you know staying at the Forefront and being a key ingredient in in that Innovation um agenda we’ve mentioned uh digital
Infrastructure I think that’s really important you know you you you can you can you can do a really good job on on the proposition that you have but if you don’t have the right digital infrastructure to support it then then you’ve got a problem and it’s it’s I’m
Not going to say it’s an easy fix but it’s you know it’s very clear that we know what the homework is and it’s making sure that we we do something about it the talent piece Claire has covered but I think the talent piece um investing now will mean that we will
Reap rewards in in the future educational programs um all sorts of um skilled Workforce initiatives um thinking about the various fields that maybe we need to do more work in you know whether it’s data science or particular parts of digital you know infrastructure whatever it might be um I
I would of course cyber security is my background so I I it would be remiss me not to say how important that is I think it’s key it’s also important to see that in that report we don’t score as well and some of our some of our competitors
To making sure that we invest in it and we prioritize it is is is really important we’ve covered housing and affordability and and cla’s covered that you know really well um and I also agree that it’s very very important I think of of you know the company that I run and I
Think about a lot of our younger engineers and and it’s something that needs to be looked at and considered I think there’s The Wider piece I think around the cultural and destination offer that’s also highlighted in that report where I think London over the last couple of years and you know the
Initiatives that you you and your team Damian have run with destination city have been phenomenal and it’s really important to make sure that you know there’s an environment that attracts people to to come into the space and and it’s not just London it’s actually the whole of the UK working in unison so
Look in summary um the ingredients are all there um there’s a realization of of what it is that we need to do there’s masses to take advantage of but I think I my my final message would be this is not a 24 month thing this this is a 10
20 30 year thing and if we get that right just like London has reinvented s reinvented itself time and time again and I go back to my original example of you know Nokia and blackberry versus say a micros roft and an apple you know that is reinvention that is seeing the future
Before it happens and executing and doing something about it and that to me is what this is all about fantastic Danny thanks for for drawing that together CLA you may want to to build on that but there’s also a question that would be great if you can address which
Is H have have we been able to track whether Talent remains in the UK or uh you know we developed the skills and then that’s one of our exports no thank you and I think Danny articulated what was going to say really well so thanks um just on the the
Previous question though I agree the long-term goals remain and and whatever sort of bumps and and you know uncertainty we have over the next 12 or 24 months those long-term plans need action now so it’s sort of don’t wait and see for it all settling I think one
Of the one of the quotes that we took from one of the CEO of one of the big Banks said to me over the summer was that the uncertainty is the only certainty so we’ve just got to get on with it um and make sure that we’re
Equipped to to deal with whatever comes down the road um so I’d certainly think you know focus on the long-term goals but take action now um on the other question about International Talent um there’s actually the city of London um Corporation are launching their International Talent report tomorrow um
At 1:00 and um if you want to hear more of me I’m on that panel too but it’s a really good report looking at the UK’s position in terms of that International Talent Marketplace um and broadly London and the UK really still rank well in terms of attracting Talent there’s
Always movement um but I think it depends where we look for that because we do not have the volume of tech expertise that we are demanding as an industry and this is why we see a lot of demand um and a lot of provision of of that Tech expertise in places like India
Um Etc and most countries now do have um quite a high level and and quite an active plan to to build Tech Talent the US Middle East Etc all these countries have got a big programs in place to build Tech talent and that’s probably something where we need to focus a bit
More I would say in the future because that pipeline isn’t something you can switch on and off um immediately it takes time to build that up um but we are attractive as a Global Financial Center I think there’s been a shift in the last few years of talent coming in
We’re seeing less European Talent more Global um non-european talent coming in um but it’s something that the report tomorrow has has much more detail on fantastic thank thank you for appearing for us twice CLA but also making people aware of of that and perhaps we can um
Subsequent to this um we we can share details of that with with those who who’ve tuned into this um in a moment I’m going to ask the um panel um a final quick fire question before that there was just one um question that I um wanted to make sure that we covered um
Where someone congratulated us on the um Opening Our footprint in in the US um open Office in in New York and in Washington which is a really exciting um next step and appointing a managing director who is going to be starting in a week’s time Ed Ed Price who many of
You may have come across um as he has worked uh over in in New York for quite a while now and we’ll be delighted to to welcome him in terms of the the plans for the next phase um I’m looking forward to to working those up with with
Ed we don’t want to sort of jump ahead of ourselves but we’re certainly going to be building on what we’ve done already and I think there is such opportunity there we’ve seen in the last sort of five six years just the direction of travel in terms of um
Mutual trade on on Financial and Professional Services is quite extraordinary but the sense is that the opportunity there is huge and we wanted to make sure that that Corridor we are on the political and Regulatory um level we’re making sure that all of the interchanges the learnings um are going
On that the regulatory side we’re particularly looking at some of those future focused areas where if we can make sure that we’re converging rather than diverging actually the opportunities for um trade going in both directions but hopefully quite a lot of it going from this side to that side are
Going to be major and also some of the key industries that we’d want to um either make sure that we’re in really strong uh connection with um JP Morgan um and other US Banks um very strongly amongst those but there there are key areas like insurance or Asset Management
Where we have a sense that there’s a lot more to be done so please watch this space we’d love to work with you right across the industry on on this area it’s absolutely key so last question to all of our panel um this is a really rich
Report and you know for those watching please do take the time to have have a look through it is there is just so much there it’s it’s a real goal mine um what what would be your key um Insight or takeaway from the report and your Reflections on the report who who’d like
To go first I I may I may um listen it’s not particular Reflections but um maybe just to tie into everything that we’ve discussed so far in the panel and what come came across to me uh in the report is to Dan point we have the ingredients the most important thing is
To be nimble adaptable and Innovative and that also needs to be underpinned by real conviction that is divorc from Market Cycles political Cycles to Danish point this is 10 20 30y year conviction about the long-term opportunity that is going to enable the growth uh you know sustainable growth in
This country so to me this is kind of the overwhelming um sentiments I took away from uh from the report fantastic thank you very much nen Danny do want to go next sure um look I I I think I’ll I’ll double down on on some of those points
And um and say that I think we have the the opportunity to sign up to a Visionary commitment that shapes the financial landscape across the UK for the next few decades it’s an incredible opportunity to have it’s up to us now to to make a most of it thank you very much
Danny CLA thank you I think um I just think the breadth of of um indicators in here is a really good barometer of where we are but I think um although it’s incredibly important to sort of look across all of these actually making London the UK the best financial center
Goes beyond some indicators so it isn’t just about we’ve got to beat another Financial Cent we want to be Beyond and so I think exactly that that ambitious Vision keeping true to that um and the indicators will will sort of prove our Point we’ve got to stay the course um
And invest and not not be complacent about what what the challenge is brilliant thank you that that brings us to a fantastic close can I can I say huge thanks um to our fantastic panel to CLA to Danny and to mlu can I say great thanks to alista who has put this um
Report together and to all of those within the city of London team who who supported that I think um having um done these reports now for for four years one of the things that really emerges is the fact that things are not stuck in stone and I think our panelists have already
Said there are real opportunities to move the dial to achieve things that we need to have that nimbleness and adaptability we need to have that determination longterm and the collaboration that can really make it work so looking forward to working with many of you online and um a big thanks
Again to the panel have a great rest of the day many thanks indeed thank you good bye