WORLD RANKINGS


OPPORTUNITIES


Virgin’s Scottish HQ to expand


Scots cities enter top ten


For the first time, both Edinburgh and Glasgow are now in the top 10 financial centres in Europe, as ranked in the latest Z/Yen Group Global Financial Centres Index. Edinburgh is ranked 9th while Glasgow is in 10th position in Europe, ahead of cities


such as Amsterdam, Oslo, Vienna, Brussels, Madrid and Milan. In the global rankings of 75 financial centres in the index, Edinburgh is in 32nd


position, while Glasgow is just behind in 33rd position – up 13 places from its previous ranking of 46. These rankings reflect the ability of Scotland to continue to expand its financial


services industry by attracting companies to grow their businesses in Glasgow and Edinburgh. In recent years these having included major players such as Barclays, Santander, esure, Morgan Stanley, Tesco Bank, HSBC, Virgin, State Street and Blackrock. The index is published twice a year and uses 28,604 financial centre assessments


completed by 1,887 financial services professionals. Since 2007, well over 100,000 assessments from over 6,000 respondents have built the index.


For more information, visit http://www.financialcentrefutures.net EXPANSION Edinburgh is streets ahead


Global financial services company State Street has chosen Edinburgh as its European Centre of Excellence, creating 90 new jobs. State Street, which provides financial services


to institutional investors, is expanding its Scottish operations by creating a European Centre of Excellence for cash servicing. This will increase the company’s Scottish workforce from 750 to 840 employees. State Street has had a presence in Scotland


since 1998 providing investment management, research and trading and investment servicing. Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Finance,


Employment and Sustainable Growth John Swinney said: “State Street is a global leader in financial services, operating in more than 100 markets. The company’s decision to increase its Scottish presence through the creation of a European Centre of Excellence is testament to quality and skills of the local workforce.”


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Virgin Money is to expand its headquarters in Edinburgh in the lead up to launching new financial service products in early 2012. It aims to offer deposit accounts, followed by mortgages and current accounts, to rival established competitors. Virgin Money, which already has


some 80 staff in Edinburgh, is looking to hire about 300 people to strengthen its administration teams which are based at its new St Andrew Square headquarters in the city. Chief Executive Jayne-Anne Gadhia said that the company was attracted to Edinburgh as Scotland has a solid reputation for financial services. The company, which has more than 2.5 million customers, was founded in Norwich in 1995 as a joint venture between Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Norwich Union. Virgin Money bought small


regional bank Church House Trust in 2010 to obtain a banking licence and speed up its plans to become a full- service bank. The group also secured a £100 million investment from US billionaire Wilbur Ross, who now owns 21 percent of the firm.


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