31 March 2011 

Welcome to our March 2011 newsletter
This month saw the Chancellor’s annual Budget Report in which he was clear about his ambition for the UK: to make it the best place in Europe to start, finance and grow a business. It’s an objective we welcome as we continue our work to make the UK the best place in the world to locate and grow a financial services business.

Indeed, our work since last summer has focused on bringing together business and policymakers across the UK to deliver our message about how financial services can deliver jobs and growth. This month we have been in Scotland and Northern Ireland, both of which are home to significant regional financial services centres – employing more than 50,000 and 30,000 respectively. We ended the month with our inaugural Spring Debate which brought together senior figures from Government, the full breadth of financial and professional services, and industry and consumer bodies. I was delighted to see over 200 of you in attendance and to hear some great feedback on the diverse range of views on offer, such as the compelling account from Wai Au, Strategic Adviser to China Construction Bank. She expressed admiration for the UK's unique financial services' expertise, which has been built up over hundreds of years.  

There’s more on our Spring Debate below, along with all of our latest research, events, infographics and commentary.

As ever, if you want to find out more about TheCityUK and how your organisation can get involved in our work, please do get in touch.

Kind regards

Chris Cummings
CEO, TheCityUK

Budgeting on UK growth   
The Budget provided an important platform for the Chancellor to demonstrate his commitment to helping Britain's economy move towards recovery, via ensuring growth and securing jobs for the future. In our Budget submission, we had called for a predictable and internationally competitive tax and regulatory system - the Chancellor has committed to these. 

GFCI9: London remains in 'poll' position
The results of the 9th edition of the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI9) for March 2011 show that London is still ranked first. London increased its lead slightly to 12 points and remains top in all five key measures of competitiveness: people, business environment, market access, infrastructure and general competitiveness.

TheCityUK in Belfast
Delegates at our Belfast seminar, hosted on 3 March 2011, heard a diverse range of views on the financial services sector's significant contribution to the Northern Irish and wider UK economy, and the opportunities and challenges facing practitioners and policymakers on both sides of the Irish Sea. 

Assets of sovereign wealth funds up 11% in 2010 to record $4.2 trillion
Assets under management of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) increased 11% in 2010 to a record $4.2 trillion according to our latest report, Sovereign Wealth Funds 2011. There was an additional $6.8 trillion held in other sovereign investment vehicles, such as pension reserve funds, development funds and state-owned corporations’ funds and $7.7 trillion in other official foreign exchange reserves. Marko Maslakovic, Economic Research Senior Manager, appeared on CNBC to discuss the report's findings.

Infographic: percentage of UK financial services in Scotland
Scotland accounts for approximately 9 per cent of the UK’s population, yet 27% of all UK employment in life assurance and pensions, and 14% of all fund management employment, is based there.

Select the image below to visit our Flickr channel where you can download for your own use.

Upcoming events

1 April 2011
Cross-border capital flows: China-UK seminar with The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE)
TheCityUK members are invited to join Director General Sun Lujun of the Capital Account Management Department at the SAFE, accompanied by 11 other SAFE officials who will be visiting the China-Britain Business Council (CBBC). Read more >>

10-19 April 2011
Lord Mayor's visit
to China
The Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Michael Bear, will visit China and Hong Kong from Monday 10 April 2011 to Tuesday 19 April 2011, with the overarching aim of promoting the UK financial and professional services industry. Read more >> 

14 April 2011
The speed of trust – a FranklinCovey event discounted for TheCityUK members
This FranklinCovey event features a keynote speech by best-selling author, Stephen M. R. Covey, the expert on trust as a business issue. He will be speaking on the tangible benefits of developing trust in your organisation and the actionable behaviours you can implement immediately to build trust. 
Read more >>

18 April 2011
Kazakhstan – Roundtable with the Ambassador
E Mr Kairat Abusseitov, Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan, will take part in a roundtable talk with TheCityUK's CIS group on Monday 18 April 2011. The Kazakh Presidential election is due on Sunday 3 April 2011 and this will be an opportunity to review the political and economic landscape. Read more >>

Follow this link for our upcoming events
programme