The UK continues to be Europe’s most attractive location for international investment into financial services, according to EY’s latest UK Attractiveness Survey for Financial Services, attracting 56 projects in 2020.
Out of the 56 UK projects recorded in 2020, 49 were new projects and seven were expansions. However, this was 43 projects lower than in 2019 and the gap with the second largest recipient of investment – now France – has narrowed. In 2019, the UK recorded 99 projects, more than double the financial services projects than second placed country, Germany, which registered 43 projects. In 2020, however, the UK’s lead has narrowed to 14%, with France overtaking Germany for second place by securing 49 projects. In contrast to the overall European trend of falling financial services FDI projects (23%), France saw its number of investment projects increase by 11 (a rise of 29%).
In a survey of global investors, the UK came out as the European country with the most investment friendly COVID-19 recovery plans (backed by 48% of respondents) and the most attractive for financial services investment (scoring 50%). Germany came second on both these metrics with 38% and 33% respectively, while France and Switzerland came in joint third place on both with 21% each.
According to global investors surveyed, the top three drivers of UK growth in the coming years are the digital economy (top with 54% stating this), real estate (second with 42%), and financial services (third with 33%). Healthcare and wellbeing came fourth with 29%.
The largest source of financial services investment into Europe in 2020 was once again the US, with 23% of financial services projects being undertaken by US businesses. The second largest source was the UK – contributing 14% of total projects (41 projects in total) - although this represents a decline of 40% on 2019 levels.
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