Why the government should consider being nicer to bankers
With the powers that be conspiring to make the City an ever-less attractive place to work, here's a nice little chart to illustrate why they shouldn't be too hasty in making financial services workers (and indeed firms) want to move elsewhere.
International Financial Services London has just released its 'UK Financial Sector Net Exports' report, illustrating how the industry contributes the country's economy. As you can see, the FS sector is making a valiant attempt to plug the UK trade deficit, with trade surplus rising nearly 25% to 45.6bn in the industry last year (it didn't work BTW - goods and services were still down by 38bn in 2008).
And, as the table below shows, banks were by far the largest contributor to the UK's financial sector exports:
Still, there's a good chance these stats are not as rosy as they first seem. These figures are flattered somewhat by "FISIM and banks' spread earnings from derivatives, foreign exchange and securities transactions".
FISIM means "financial intermediation services indirectly measured" - or the charge for banks' borrowing services - and they weren't included in the report until 2008.
