England’s 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 (almost 20 per cent of the workforce) and valued at more than AUD19 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 had 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.

This internationally recognised organisation is joined by the likes of HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclaycard, AIG, JP Morgan and Deloitte in making a base in Manchester.

England’s Northwest’s financial and professional services sector generated AUD15 billion in income in 2000 and employs 280,000 people. The region is also the second largest legal centre in the UK, with around 1800 legal service companies operating in the area.

In addition, networking organisations in the region include Pro-Manchester and Professional Liverpool.