Cardiff has emerged as a key location for finance businesses with the headquarters of a number of leading financial and fintech services based in
the city.

Welsh Government research states that Cardiff is the preferred location for contact and shared service centres in the UK and the city has a growing reputation in outsourced HR, legal and other corporate services.

Cardiff’s flourishing financial sector has an increasing number of insurance and pension companies making the city their home. The proportion of people employed in life insurance is seven times greater than the UK average.

Ranked in the world’s top 100 for Business and Economics, Cardiff Business School has a close relationship with businesses in the
city, including its collaboration with Legal & General, which has led to Cardiff developing the largest cluster of medical underwriters in the UK. The Business School has also collaborated with OSTC to develop a Cardiff Trading Room.

A number of globally recognised financial services companies, some of the UK’s biggest accountancy firms as well as home-grown companies have
recently expanded their operation in Cardiff. Amongst these is Admiral which launched in Cardiff in 1993 with 57 staff and no customers. Now it has a turnover of more than 1 billion, employs 10,000 people in eight countries and has over 6 million customers worldwide.

Admiral’s growth was supported by higher education in the city that not only provides a steady stream of skilled graduates, but also works closely with business to design and shape future courses for the sector.

Cardiff also has a growing reputation as an alternative fintech capital to London, recognised as an exemplar for financial aggregator site technology. The sector is supported by the Welsh Financial Services Graduate Programme backed by leading financial services employers
including Admiral, Atradius, Hodge Bank, Development Bank of Wales, Principality Building Society, Legal & General and Motonovo.

Other initiatives set up to support the fintech sector include the National Cyber Security Academy, an innovative project to develop the
next generation of cyber security experts established by the University of South Wales and Welsh Government, and Cardiff University’s National
Software Academy which aims to address the national shortage of skilled programming and software engineering graduates.

• Financial and insurance activities, real estate and business services account for £3.5 billion of output making Cardiff one of the UK’s largest financial and professional services sectors outside London.
• Cardiff has the best penetration of superfast broadband of UK Core Cities, boosted by an internet Exchange in the heart of the city.