Scottish financial and professional services accounted for £8.8bn of exports in 2020

Scottish financial and professional services accounted for £8.8bn of exports in 2020

The figure signified an 86% surge since 2010.

Scottish financial and related professional services accounted for around £8.8 billion of exports in 2020, according to a new report published by TheCityUK.

The figure signified an 86% surge since 2010.

The report revealed that 43% of Britain’s £129.7bn of financial and related professional services exports originated outside London in 2020.



Between 2019-20, total financial and related professional services exports across Britain rose by 8.4%, with the South East (9.1% of the total £129.7bn), Scotland (6.8%) and North West (5.4%) making the largest contributions to British exports outside of the capital.

The report also found that financial services exports from Scotland accounted for 7.6% of Britain’s total financial services exports in 2020.

All regions and nations across Britain generated trade surpluses in financial services in 2020. London had the largest financial services trade surplus of £34bn, followed by the South East (£5.1bn) and Scotland (£4.6bn).

Between 2016-20, London experienced the strongest average annual growth of industry exports at 13%, followed by Yorkshire and the Humber (12%), the North East (10%), and Scotland (9%).

Anjalika Bardalai, chief economist and head of research, TheCityUK, said, “As London is one of the world’s leading international financial centres, it inevitably leads the UK’s exports of financial and related professional services. But the idea that London sells these services overseas and the rest of the UK focuses on domestic activity is misleading.

“Other regions, especially the South East, Scotland, the North West and the East of England, also make important contributions to exports of financial and related professional services, demonstrating the vital economic role the industry plays across all parts of the country.

“In addition, as the UK braces for an economic storm, the surplus generated by financial and related professional services provides an important buffer against the risks of a widening trade deficit.”

In terms of the destination of British financial services exports, 71% went to non-EU countries and the remaining 29% went to the EU in 2020. For the UK as a whole, the US was by far the largest destination for financial services exports, accounting for 34% of total financial services exports in 2020. Other notable non-EU destinations for industry exports were Japan (3.5%) and Canada (3.4%).

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