Financial services are an important enabler of the UK’s future ambitions to become a competitive, world-leading economy. When the sector is firing on all cylinders, everyone stands to benefit.
But ten years on from the global financial crisis, despite much progress, the financial services sector continues to face several important challenges. From dealing with rapid technological developments to evolving regulatory expectations and tax policy, the sector is working hard to meet changing customer needs and expectations. The poor productivity performance of financial services since the crisis, with productivity shrinking by 2.1% a year since 2008,4 has been a significant contributor to the slowdown in UK productivity growth.
The sector also plays an increasingly important role in shaping public policy to deal with the economic challenges of the future, such as demographic changes and addressing the savings gap, while making a real impact on everyday life in terms of helping businesses grow and expand and supporting job creation right across the economy.
This report sets out the contribution the sector makes, some of the challenges the sector faces, and the key steps to enable financial services to support UK growth and promote world-class financial services that will deliver great customer outcomes.
