Cardiff is an important centre for Financial & Business Services that accounts for over 40% of total value added in the sector and 5% of Welsh GDP. Cardiff’s vibrant financial services sector employs almost 50,000 people according to the Annual Business Inquiry, which is bigger than most UK cities, including Liverpool, Nottingham and Newcastle.

Throughout the UK, the banking, finance and insurance employs around 22% of the total workforce. In Cardiff the equivalent figure was 25.5% in 2008, higher than many other UK cities.
The sector saw spectacular growth between 1998 and 2008 when the total number of net new jobs grew by over 18,000, or 60%, the highest growth rate of all the UK Core Cities.

The growing reputation and growth of the city’s Financial & Business Services sector is due in no small part to the arrival or expansion of a large number of globally recognised financial services companies, including Admiral, Atradius, GE,  GMAC, Go Compare, HBOS, HSBC, ING, Legal & General, Lloyds TSB, and Zurich.

In addition, home-grown companies such as The Principality Building Society, Julian Hodge Bank and Thomas Carroll have expanded dramatically over recent years.

The industry is highlighted in Cardiff Council’s economic development strategy as a key sector for the future prosperity of the city.
 
Key features include:

• Fast growth and diversity of activity 
• Both home grown firms and inward investors 
• High skill levels and strong staff retention rates 
• Extensive network of support services companies 
• Excellent collaboration with the university sector 
• High re-investment levels 
• Strong public sector support

The wider Cardiff City region offers a critical mass of excellence of over 60,000 under-graduate students, 12,000 post-graduate students, and 6,000 overseas students from over 100 countries across the world. This makes the area an attractive proposition for inward investment. Cardiff’s two business schools – Cardiff Business School and the Cardiff Metropolitan University School of Management – deliver a steady stream of graduates and are home to over 7,000 F&PS students.

Banks and building societies dominate the sector, whilst insurance and pension companies represent an important sub-sector. The remainder work in operation and supervision enterprises including insurance brokers, independent financial advisors, fund managers, asset managers, stockbrokers, actuaries, loss adjustors; risk managers, exchanges, wealth managers.

To see a number of Business & Financial Services case studies, click here.