Business and Professional Services
The Northwest is home to over 80 banks, many major
insurance companies and is a thriving centre of venture capital and
corporate finance activity. Companies are attracted by the quality
and availability of staff, many of whom have multi-lingual skills
reflecting the cosmopolitan nature of the region's main
cities.
Manchester is a centre of excellence and the UK's pre-eminent
regional centre for financial, professional and business services.
It is thought to be the largest and fastest growing financial
services sector outside London, employing around 172,000 people, or
almost 20% of the workforce, and valued at more than £9 billion.
Manchester is also home to one of the four regional centres for the
National Skills Academy for Financial Services.
In 2006, The Bank of New York, the oldest bank in the United
States and one of the largest banking groups in the world, selected
Manchester as the location for a new operations centre, in
addition to the offices it already has in Liverpool.
The Bank decided to base its new securities servicing growth
centre in central Manchester to support business expansion in
the UK and Europe, but also to take advantage of Manchester’s
reputation, strong transport links and the abundance of skilled
workers.
It is far from alone in its decision. joining the
Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclaycard, AIG, JP Morgan and Deloitte in
making a base in Manchester.
The Northwest's financial and professional services sector:
- generated £7.3 billion in income in 2000
- employs 280,000 people
The Northwest is also the second largest legal centre in the UK.
There are around 1800 legal service companies in the region.
Networking organisations in the region include Pro-Manchester and Professional
Liverpool