Edinburgh's financial services sector

Europe’s Best Large City of the Future and Best Large City for fDi Strategy 2012/13 (FT, fDi Magazine, Edinburgh is the UK’s second most competitive financial centre, a major European centre for asset management and asset servicing and home to the Headquarters of the UK Green Investment Bank.

In world terms the capital ranks ahead of Dublin, Istanbul, Beijing, Prague, Bahrain, Moscow, Mumbai and Budapest in the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI). (March 2013)

The city employs 35,000 people in financial services and is home to two of the world’s 150 top financial services companies as ranked by Forbes.

The financial services sector of Edinburgh is extremely diverse, and the city has critical mass in banking, life insurance and pensions, asset servicing and investment management. More than 90% of all Scottish fund managers are based in the city region. It also has vibrant corporate finance, brokerage and professional services sectors.

The key assets of the sector within Edinburgh are identified as the skills base of the city, the critical mass of the sector (in terms of the workforce and business base) and the global reputation of Edinburgh for financial services.

The financial services talent pool is broad, multi-skilled and exceptionally well-qualified, with a high proportion of graduates.

The largest financial services sector companies headquartered in the city are the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Standard Life, AEGON UK, Scottish Widows, Baillie Gifford and Tesco Bank.

The sector in Edinburgh has attracted significant inward investment, with a large number of foreign-owned companies having operations in Edinburgh.

Multinationals with a presence in the city include BlackRock, HSBC, Société Générale and the Bank of New York Mellon.

Edinburgh has a rich history of financial services innovation and can lay claim to world-changing innovations including the mortgage and internet banking.