1. Innovative 2. Reach of 3. Regulatory 4. Access to 5. Resilient business Our global offer to business: ecosystem 昀椀nancial activity environment talent and skills infrastructure London and the UK’s competitive 19 strengths supporting economic growth post-retirement. Pensioners in the The share of FPS-relevant graduates UK bene昀椀t from a state pension in the UK peaked in 2019, with 42% 4.1 Skills, hiring and training as well as their own personal graduating with related degrees. pension schemes. All UK companies The share fell to 38% in 2021. France, contribute a minimum of 8% of an with a similar number of students employee’s salary to a pension, in tertiary education, increased the The FS industry generates an average contribution to economic output of £177k per unless the employee opts out. share of FPS-quali昀椀ed graduates to Source 48% in 2021. However, in absolute employee, making it is one of the most productive in the UK. This productivity is due terms this means that there are over 1m FPS-relevant students in the UK. in part to the calibre of UK universities, MBA courses and professional quali昀椀cations Mercer/CFA 2023 Although the share of students fell, programmes, which are some of the world’s best. However, in-job training and re- There are over one million UK the absolute number increased by >1m students studying for FPS-related skilling needs to be improved. UK FS has a history of ‘buying in’ skills rather than 14,000 from 2019 to 2021 in line with related degrees. student population. retraining employees, but with low unemployment and an acute digital skills gap, this FPS-relevant students in the UK Source has become more expensive to do. There are 2.8m undergraduate and postgraduate students in the UK. UNESCO 2023, HESA 2023 level fell across all 昀椀nancial centres The UK strives for gender equality in 2022. The UK has the highest and is one of the highest-ranked The UK has the highest share of senior women in 昀椀nance proportion of female executives countries in the world in this regard, working in 昀椀nancial services amongst but there is more to be done. % of women in senior FS positions GFCs, but at 27% this is lower than Compared to other countries, the UK other industries in the UK. London New York City Singapore Frankfurt Paris Hong Kong Tokyo ranks highly for gender equality, but Source has far to go. The WEF Global Gender 40 Report 2023 ranks the UK 昀椀fteenth WEF 2023, FTSE Women Leaders 2023, Re昀椀nitiv 2023 in the world for gender parity. In comparison to other 昀椀nancial centres, The UK has one of the best pension the UK is second, behind Germany. 30 systems in the world. The UK has a higher proportion of female graduates from tertiary UK pensions rank second amongst education, and a higher proportion GFCs and tenth in the world in terms of female graduates in FPS-relevant of bene昀椀ts provided to pensioners, 20 subjects: natural sciences, business quality of regulation and meeting administration and law. demographic challenges. Singapore is the only GFC that ranks higher than FTSE Women Leaders research the UK; its smaller population allows shows that women make up 40% of 10 it to provide greater state pension FTSE 350 company board members. bene昀椀ts than other countries. However, the percentage is lower within the 昀椀nance sector. Female Good pensions bene昀椀t workers as representation on 昀椀nancial services 0 they increase total compensation company boards and at executive 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 and contribute to quality of life