Both cities were market world leaders in the past but London declined while New York jittered. "Experts" helped cause that and have long advised investors to get out of both and into other markets - including the EU and EMs - making NYSE investors jittery and feeding London's deterioration. They have also warned of hard landings for the US economy for at least five years but instead it kept climbing nicely. Recent figures shows signs of producing higher than past norms meaning opportunity for investors. Those "experts" also seem not to know that the EU has long been dead and shows few signs of change with the US economy expanding eight times faster than the EU's in the last part of 2025, according to Eurostat data. Nor do they appear to have seen that emerging market investors are going the other way and have been putting money into US stocks - South Korean investments on the NYSE are up 65% from a year earlier.
Interestingly some New York financial leaders are helping London's turnaround as are many from emerging market Hong Kong. Such investments will also have a positive effect on the UK economy generally via the multiplier effect thus helping reverse decades of economic suppression caused by central government incompetence. That political incompetence shows no sign whatsoever of changing but investments are bypassing it.
Photo of Canary Wharf, London from Galliard Homes.
Canary Wharf has become one of the world's premier financial and commercial districts, serving as London's second-largest financial hub after the City of London. It hosts major global financial institutions, including Barclays, HSBC, Citigroup, and J.P. Morgan, employing over 120,000 people and dominating in banking, fintech, and legal services. Together with the City of London it makes London overall one of the world's top two financial centres, alongside New York. It is Europe's leading hub, holding premier status in international finance due to its deep pools of talent, regulatory environment, role in foreign exchange, banking and insurance.
The following points add to my views that that position is again strengthening ...
Major U.S. banks have significantly ramped up their investments in London and the broader UK
This investment drive, often called the "golden corridor" of finance, includes major infrastructure projects, job creation, and the expansion of digital banking services. That drive includes the following ..
- JPMorgan Chase recently announced plans for a massive 3 million sq ft tower in Canary Wharf. This £3 billion project will serve as its new UK headquarters, accommodating 12,000 employees and contributing an estimated £9.9 billion to the UK economy over six years.
- Citigroup (Citi) is investing £1.1 billion in its UK operations. This includes a major refurbishment of its Canary Wharf headquarters and continued expansion in Belfast, which is now a major technology hub for the bank.
- Goldman Sachs: While expanding in London, it is also doubling its workforce in Birmingham to over 1,000 staff. It remains a dominant player in London’s M&A advisory and investment banking sectors.
- Bank of America, as part of the broader investment pledge, is focusing on expanding its UK footprint and recently launched a new operations facility in Belfast to support its global business.
- Wells Fargo has been actively expanding its influence in the European Debt Capital Markets (DCM) from its London hub. It previously made headlines by purchasing its own office block in the City of London.
Hong Kong buyers are currently the most prominent foreign investors in the London property market
- Hong Kong-based Link REIT entered the UK market by purchasing The Cabot in London's Canary Wharf for approximately £380 million (around US$487 million). The 17-story office building is Morgan Stanley's European headquarters.
Other important happenings include the following...
- The Financial Times reported that US tycoons with a combined net worth of more than $130bn have bought apartments at the Peninsula in London, an exclusive residential development situated inside a luxury hotel. Blackstone boss Stephen Schwarzman, Citadel hedge fund founder Ken Griffin and WhatsApp founder Jan Koum have all bought homes at the Belgravia site, according to Land Registry records and people familiar with the matter.
- US philanthropists have been moving hundreds of millions of dollars in charitable funds to UK structures as precautionary action against President Donald Trump’s attacks on non-profit groups.
The UK's innovative university, business and financial sectors show signs of piercing through the decades long government suppression...
- HSBC's reports, in partnership with Dealroom (Dealroom), highlight a strong rebound in UK venture capital (VC) in 2025, with Q3 seeing $9 billion raised, the second-highest Q3 ever, signalling momentum for its best year since 2022. The UK leads Europe in VC, driven by growth across all stages, especially AI, Fintech, and Health, with large "megarounds" returning (like Revolut's $2B raise) and strong early-stage (Series A) activity. Key findings include the UK's leading position in Europe, significant early-stage growth, and the central role of AI and health tech.
- Foreign buyers committed $142 billion on takeovers of British companies in 2024, up 74% from 2024 according to LSE Group. Some of those were by private equity takeovers of listed companies which is one reason the London SE lost some core constituents and not for negative reasons claimed by some.
- BlackRocks CEO, Larry Fink, said it was investing in UK assets citing the "country's strong attributes".
- LSE Group and ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited) recently announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen long‑term strategic cooperation across global financial markets, data and analytics, cross-border RMB, sustainable finance, and financial innovation. The agreement reinforces the long‑standing partnership between two of the world’s leading financial institutions and creates a framework for expanding collaboration in capital markets, trading, clearing, data, RMB business and emerging technologies. That leaves New York behind due to political fights with China.
- Synthesia a London based start up has raised funding of $4bn, as it seeks to challenge global rivals building interactive, realistic digital avatars of people.
- DeepMind was founded in London in 2010 and became part of Google in 2014.
- Kromek (KRMKF) or KMK on the LSE will be a leader in the coming new nuclear age with its radiation detection and evaluation equipment.
- Cambridge Quantum Computing - a spin out from the University of Cambridge merged with Honeywell Quantum Solutions and became one of the world's leading quantum computing groups.
- Arm Holdings (ARM) was another spin out from that university and it today a leader in the computer technology world with sales of over $4 billion. Arm's HQ remains in Cambridge, UK, but it went to the NYSE for its main listing but more are now staying at home.
More generally the Oxford-Cambridge Arc growth corridor will generate over £78 billion by 2035 for the UK economy in addition to the more than £100 billion today. Cambridge has the world's highest concentration of patents and academic entrepreneurs per capita and an unequalled record in converting innovation into economic growth. Money has been long missing especially for middle stage funding and very importantly the lack of access to experienced tech business leaders from outside as board non-execs to guide start-ups through the developments stages to the world leadership position Arm has reached. If those gaps can be filled the London SE will enjoy a surge in IPOs and the UK economy will start to fly.
As it is the ...
UK economy is not doing as badly as portrayed
Britain bashing has almost become a national sport yet the FTSE is close to record highs, inflation and interest are coming down and the UK is one of the fastest growing advanced economies!
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