Where Next Europe: The Future of European Financial Services

Published 29 May 2015

The City of London has published research by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) that looks at the value of financial services in driving growth across the EU economy, and the range of benefits that they provide to the EU. Contributing €731bn, or 5.9% of total GVA, the industry employs 6.4 million people across Europe. In addition, growth in financial services also has a significant influence on growth in other sectors thus driving a high level of demand in goods and services. The financial services industry purchases products and services from other sectors worth €316bn, including manufacturing, IT and professional services.

The report goes on to examine the implications for the wider EU economy of two scenarios over the next 15 years. Firstly, it examines a positive environment encouraging sustainable growth in financial services and, secondly, a more challenging market and regulatory environment flattening growth. It finds that under the higher growth scenario the overall European economy will be better off by €850bn in terms of GDP, along with 11 million jobs, most of which will have been created outside financial services in industries such as construction, manufacturing, services and retail.