London leads western Europe for financial services FDI despite Brexit
London is still the biggest lure for FDI, but western Europe has lost its appetite for expansion. Silvia Pavoni reports.
London might be at risk of losing business because of Brexit, but it is currently still western Europe’s largest magnet for financial services foreign direct investment (FDI). Between October 2016 and the end of September 2017, more than $1bn poured into the UK’s leading financial centre – over four times the investment that second placed Dublin received, according to estimates by database fDi Intelligence. Among the largest of the 50 investment projects in London are the respective headquarters of Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs.
Madrid is in third place with nearly $240m, while Barcelona – which has witnessed dramatic calls to separate its region, Catalonia, from the rest of Spain – is in 10th place with more than $100m.
London’s reported FDI is a marginal improvement on the previous period, between October 2015 and September 2016. However, the total amount received by the region’s top 10 financial centres has shrunk slightly in the 12 months under review. The decrease is much more sizeable in the outward FDI tables – $5.1bn in the latest ranking, down from $7.5bn – indicating western Europe’s reduced appetite for international expansion.
In the most recent outward ranking, London leads with $1.8bn, a drop of more than $100m from the earlier table. Zurich follows with $932m, then Madrid with $504m. Paris is fourth with $484m, with the financial services FDI it had previously originated more than halved.
