Financial services play an important role in all advanced economies – matching savers to borrowers, helping to manage risk, providing firms and individuals with the means to make and receive payments, and allocating savings to productive investment.
The financial services sector in the UK, with London at its heart, makes an enormous contribution to the UK economy, and to the European and global economies. The sector continues to grow as a share of UK output and employment; it employs over one million in London and in other centres such as Edinburgh and Leeds, and generates 9.4 per cent of GDP. Supporting and promoting London, and the UK, as a centre for financial and business services remains a priority for the Government.
It is in everyone’s interest to ensure financial stability. It allows the financial services sector to thrive, particularly given the inter-relationships between firms in the sector, and supports the growth of the wider economy more generally.
