Cardiff leading the way as location for Financial and Professional Services

The Cardiff Capital Region is on the way to becoming the most competitive location in the UK for Financial and Professional Services outside London, the Economy Minister Edwina Hart told a meeting of leading business people today.

The Minister told a CBI breakfast event in Cardiff that the city was one of the UK’s fastest growing locations for financial and professional services and Wales had seen a 10% rise in employment in the sector since 2009.

Mrs Hart said:

“Of our priority sectors, Financial and Professional Services is the largest in terms of businesses and jobs. It also has the highest GVA per hour worked, so it is clearly vital for the future prosperity of Wales.

“The creation of the Central Cardiff Enterprise Zone shows our commitment to putting Cardiff on the international map for Financial & Professional Services and creating the conditions business needs to thrive. Inward investment figures published last week show this is already starting to pay-off. In 2014-15 Wales recorded its best ever figures, with the 101 projects across all sectors forecast to create over 5,000 new jobs and safeguard a further 4,520 jobs.

“Over 2,000 of those new jobs are in the Financial & Professional Services Sector, with a further 1,157 safeguarded. Within the sector, inward investment projects coming to the region included Cunningham Lindsey UK, Deloitte, FirstSource Solutions, Equiniti and Optimum Credit in Cardiff, Griffin Place in Cwmbran and Arthur J Gallagher in Llantrisant.

“Cardiff is clearly on the way to meeting our ambition to become the most competitive UK city outside London for financial and professional services. As a pro-business government we will continue our work to deliver the conditions necessary to achieve that.”