Glasgow Financial Sector Tumbles, Worrying decline in key economic area Options

[GG]

Glasgow has suffered a huge fall in the latest league table of world financial centres. The city, which has invested heavily in creating a vibrant and successful international financial services district at the Broomielaw, fell further than any other of the top 75 financial powerhouses on the list: some 18 places, from 31st to 49th.

The southern edge of Glasgow's International Financial Services District.

The fall, in the latest Global Financial Centres Index, will pose massive problems for the city's economic planners, who have been banking on the financial sector to help boost Glasgow's economic growth on the back of a significant decline in manufacturing output.

The widely-respected rankings now place Glasgow behind the Bahamas, Milan and Vienna on the global survey compiled by the Z/Yen Group for the City of London, which was placed first in the rankings. The survey results are based on financial data as well surveys of the views of 1,800 financial professionals around the globe who assess finance centres with which they are familiar.

Edinburgh dropped seven places to number 27, while Dublin also slipped far down the index: 13 places down the table. Asian cities performed best, with five far eastern cities pushing into the latest top 10.

A spokesman for CBI Scotland said that while the figures for Scotland were not a surprise, they represented only a temporary setback:

"Glasgow and Edinburgh haven't lost the excellent skills base and experience that they have in the finance sector. And looking at Glasgow in particular, it is becoming a hub for the new banking forms with the Tesco Personal Finance centre, although Edinburgh is also showing the way forward."

The director of Scottish Enterprise's Financial Services Jim Watson said of the index:

"Today's news that Glasgow has dropped down the Global Financial Centres Index comes as a surprise, as whilst Glasgow has not been immune to the economic pressures affecting financial centres worldwide, it has remained robust and in recent months has seen the creation of almost 1,400 new jobs from Tesco Personal Finance and Esure."

GG.

[dugald]

Poor Glasgow! What a disturbing piece of news for the city. i wonder why Glasgow seems to be suffering more than comparable cities. Even Edinburgh is in a far better position than Glasgow. The Clyde city fell 18 positions from from 31st to 49th while Edinburgh dropped a mere seven places from number 20 to 27. Geez that's bad enough, but even before the recession, Edinburgh stood at 20 while Glasgow was suffering at 31! What the heck is the matter wi' Glasgow? To think we were once the power house of Scottish industry. Oh dear!!!

[*Tactical Voter*]

Both interesting and surprising.... that is is you believe all the crap that the city's inept politicians have been coming out with about Glasgow's alleged robustness to withstand the ravages of a Labour-induced recession. Just last month the leader of Labour-controlled Glasgow City Council said this:

"Glasgow is well placed to withstand the economic pressures of the global recession."

And now we see that Glasgow has in fact suffered the WORST of any city in the world. Maybe once Labour is booted out of office we might actually find out the truth about how bad things are going to get in this city as a result of years of disastrous Labour mismanagement of this once-great city.

[GG]

Bad news today for the city's financial sector:

250 Barclaycard jobs move from Glasgow to Cardiff

Around 250 jobs are being transferred to Cardiff as Barclaycard moves its lending unit from Glasgow. The jobs will be based in Pentwyn, Cardiff, where Barclaycard already has a lending arm called Firstplus. The transfer means the Glasgow operation will shut down completely by the summer.

Full story (from BBC Wales) here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8582279.stm

GG.