For all the gloom around the impact of Brexit on the City of London, the latest survey of Europe’s top destinations for foreign direct investment (FDI) in financial services is a reminder of the UK’s continuing heft in the sector.
Britain landed 76 financial service projects last year, up 17 percent from the previous year, despite the economic downturn and political instability in Westminster, an Ernst & Young analysis said.
It means the UK secured 26 percent of all European financial services FDI projects.
The rise was thanks to an increase in US investment, with the UK home to 21 US-backed projects — up a quarter year-on-year.
Even in challenging times, investors see the UK “as the most attractive European financial services market,” said Anna Anthony, UK financial services managing partner at Ernst & Young.
The industry needs to work with the government to continue to boost the UK’s appeals through investment in programs such as boosting social mobility and upskilling local talent.
France, which recorded a 25 percent fall in the number of projects last year, came in second at 45. Germany and Spain followed with 31 each.
The Ernst & Young results come even as a growing chorus of executives criticize the UK’s business environment. Last month, Revolut’s cofounders launched a blistering attack on the UK as a place to run a business, saying they would not consider listing in London.
By contrast, an accompanying survey of executives across banking, insurance, wealth and asset management, and fintech found they expected the UK to retain or improve its level of financial services attractiveness over the next three years, according to Ernst & Young.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
RSS