London has attracted more financial services foreign direct investment than eight other global financial districts in 2017, including New York, Luxembourg, and Singapore. The city's capital from foreign direct investments amounted to a total of $88 billion in 2017.
The achievement placed the city as the world's leading net exporter of financial services according to data released by the City of London Corporation.
The report outlined that London secured as many as 55 inbound foreign direct investments in 2017 which is more than double the number acquired by Dublin, Paris, Frankfurt, and New York. The city welcomed 246 projects or 28 percent of all projects across the nine financial districts reviewed for the study.
The city's financial services attracted more than double the foreign direct investments than any other sector in the United Kingdom in 2016. With this, the city opened as much as 16,126 new jobs between 2013 and 2017. More than half of these jobs or about 70 percent attracted workers from outside the city.
The report also identified the top foreign investors that have brought in projects for the city, the United States, Sweden, and China. The top investors that opened the most jobs were the United States, Germany, and Sweden.
Foreign investors were attracted to London's proximity to key markets and customers, domestic market potential, skilled workforce, and the more than 1.1 million financial services jobs in the United Kingdom.
There had been growing concerns within the international country over the United Kingdom's looming departure from the European Union on March 29, 2019.
Most recently, Prime Minister Theresa May mulled extending the transition period which is supposed to end by Dec. 31, 2020. During this period, the United Kingdom would conduct all businesses and diplomatic relationship in the same manner pre-Brexit until the new relationships and its accompanying changes stabilize.
Of particular concern is a policy that would require concerned parties to implement the need for customs checks at the border dividing the Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
May said they may need to extend the transition period to stabilize the new regulations regarding this "backstop." However, U.K. and Irish officials have yet to compromise on how the border custom checks could be implemented and how long should it be implemented.
A person familiar with the discussion told BBC that the parties are having difficulties arriving at a resolution because any final decision will have financial repercussions.
The European Union, meanwhile, said it sees no problem extending the transition period for Brexit to take effect. In fact, the organization is willing to help May negotiated with respective officials.
