Date: 23 April 2008
Scotland's Financial Services Advisory Board (FiSAB) - the innovative collaboration between the financial services industry, the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, the unions and Universities Scotland - is sponsoring a Global Financial Services Week commencing Monday 26 May 2008.
The aim of the week is to showcase the strength and depth of the industry in Scotland to stakeholders in Scotland, the rest of the UK and the international markets; and to provide a forum for top level discussion about the future for this most internationalised of industries. The centrepiece of the week's events is the Global Financial Services Conference involving some of the world's most respected experts in international finance. It will examine Scotland's place in the world economy, discuss emerging markets in China, other Asian markets and Russia, and highlight the challenges and opportunities faced in maintaining Scotland's strong position in the global financial industry.
Alex Salmond, Scotland's First Minister, has already confirmed his support and will give a keynote address. John Campbell, Chairman of Scottish Financial Enterprise and Deputy Industry Chair of FiSAB, will open the conference before Professor John Kay, a Member of the Council of Economic Advisors, reviews the state of the global economy and its impact on the business and political agenda for Scotland.
Other speakers include:
Andy Hornby, Group Chief Executive of HBoS who will give a view from a major global company, with its roots firmly in Scotland.
David Nicol, Chief Administration Officer of Morgan Stanley Europe, will discuss the role of Morgan Stanley's Scottish operations within its global delivery network.
Feilim Mackle, Director AEGON Individual Business will discuss the success and development that the former Scottish Equitable has achieved under the ownership of AEGON. This section of the agenda will identify the benefits and drawbacks of Scotland as a business location for financial services companies and highlight opportunities to improve the business environment in Scotland.
Danny Corrigan, head of international business development of ICAP, the inter-dealer brokerage, and newly appointed UK Financial Services envoy for Russia, will give a view of the business opportunities in Russia, which is one of the four rapidly growing BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) emerging economies, and Sir Tom Harris, Vice Chairman of Capital Markets at Standard Chartered Bank will give an overview of the Asian Markets.
John Lutz, General Manager of Global Financial Services at IBM will end the day with an overview of the industry worldwide from IBM's perspective.
The conference is the centre-piece of a week of events that will help to showcase the strength and depth of the financial services industry in Scotland, to highlight trends in the industry globally and discuss the opportunities these bring. Further details on the weeks' events will also be found at www.globalfinancialservicesweek.com. It is expected that further events will be added to the calendar in the coming weeks.
