Despite recent turbulence in financial markets, international business in the UK financial sector has shown robust growth in the first nine months of 2007 according to a new edition of IFSL's International Financial Markets in the UK report.

Latest indicators show that:

• Trading in UK listed companies on the LSE totalled £3,138bn in the first nine months of 2007, up a third on the same period in 2006. The London Stock Exchange accounted for 53% of foreign equity trading in the first nine months of 2007, up 3% on 2006. London was the second largest location for IPOs in the first nine months of 2007 with a 15% global share.

• Trading on Liffe totalled 724 million contracts in the first nine months of 2007, up 28% on the same period in 2006. The volume of trading at LME, EDX and ICE Futures Europe was also up in 2007. UK participants in the Eurex exchange accounted for 46% of contracts in the first nine months of 2007.

• Daily foreign exchange trading in London increased from $753bn in April 2004 to $1,359bn in April 2007. London accounted for 34% of global foreign exchange trading and 43% of global OTC derivatives trading in April 2007.

• The UK’s 17% share of net issues in the international bond market in 2007 in the first half of 2007 was up from 15% in 2006.

• Premium income in the London insurance market totalled £24.3bn in 2006, down 9% on the previous year. Premium income of the UK insurance industry grew 16% in 2006 to a record £193.9bn. The London Market’s 23.7% share of marine insurance in 2006 was the highest in the world.

• UK banking sector assets increased 16% in the first 8 months of 2007 to a record £7,271bn. The UK had the leading share of international bank lending (20%) and international bank borrowing (23%) in March 2007.

• The growing contribution of financial services to the UK economy is shown in City type employment reaching a new high of 338,000 in 2006. UK financial services trade surplus increased by nearly a third in 2006 to £25.1bn. The surplus in the first half of 2007 reached £15.6bn.

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