Yorkshire finance exports hit £3.6bn, according to TheCityUK

YORKSHIRE’s financial services exports have hit £3.6bn a year, after the sector enjoyed a period of steady growth.
Chris Hearld, of KPMG.  Picture Tony Johnson.Chris Hearld, of KPMG.  Picture Tony Johnson.
Chris Hearld, of KPMG. Picture Tony Johnson.

A new report from TheCityUK shows that while London remains the UK’s main hub for international finance, industry export growth in several UK regions has been faster than in the capital over the past five years.

TheCityUK estimates in its ‘Exporting from across Britain 2019’ report, that Yorkshire and the Humber exported £3.6bn of financial and related professional services in 2017.

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Financial services exports from Yorkshire and the Humber accounted for 4.2 per cent of the UK’s total financial services exports in 2016, according to the report.

The study also found that related professional services exports from the region accounted for 2.3 per cent of Great Britain’s total related professional services exports.

Financial and related professional services exports in Yorkshire and the Humber accounted for 46 per cent of all service exports from the region in 2016.

Almost half of Britain’s £96.9bn financial and related professional services exports came from outside London in 2017, the report concluded.

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Chris Hearld, the north region chairman and Leeds office senior partner at KPMG, and Leeds city chair for TheCityUK, said: “Financial and related professional services are of paramount importance to Yorkshire, with companies employing a huge number of people across a diverse industry offering, including a thriving FinTech community.

“One of our biggest opportunities is to capitalise on these years of successive growth for the industry by offering apprentices and graduates not only their first job, but also genuine prospects for progression and the promise of a career.”

Anjalika Bardalai, the chief economist and head of research, TheCityUK, said: “There is a common misconception that financial and related professional services are only of value to ‘the City’ of London.

“This report helps to debunk this myth, showing clearly that the industry, including international finance, is a UK-wide success story. London and the regions and nations all play a role in making the UK a world-leading international financial centre.

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“The industry’s exports from areas such as West and South Yorkshire contributed to a financial and related professional services trade surplus of around £75bn in 2017.

“In most of the UK’s regions and nations, this industry is the largest services exporter, and a significant local source of jobs and economic output.”

For the first time, TheCityUK’s ‘Exporting from across Britain’ report also contains sub regional data on industry exports.

These new data show that out of a total of 40 sub-regions in Great Britain, 15 have financial services exports in excess of £1bn.

TheCityUK is the industry-led body representing UK-based financial and related professional services.