Chancellor Philip Hammond has revealed two new government financial services initiatives - a new Green Finance Institute and an industry-led Financial Services Skills Taskforce - as the UK heads for Brexit.

He told leading City figures in his annual Mansion House speech last night that his vision was to see the City maintain its role as a world-leading financial services centre post Brexit.

To ensure the sector continues to have access to the talent and skills it needs he announced a new industry-led Financial Services Skills Taskforce chaired by Mark Hoban, former City Minister.

The Chancellor said: “…we will need to ensure that – in addition to access to international talent – the UK has a long-term pipeline of domestic skills to meet this transformation. To harness the brightest young minds of today to meet the needs of the financial sector of the future. So tonight I am pleased to announce the creation of a new industry-led Financial Services Skills Taskforce.”

Mark Hoban said today: “The future of this industry is dependent on its ability to attract and retain the best people. It is consistently the number one issue raised by industry leaders. By assessing now what skills are needed for the future we can put in place the right measures today to make sure our education system can deliver the skills we need tomorrow.

The new Taskforce will, “assess the financial sector’s long-term needs in order to ensure domestic skills match employer needs and the UK’s financial services skills base remains world leading.” The terms of reference and meeting dates of the Taskforce will be determined by the Chair and Secretariat later. 

The government will also fund a new Green Finance Institute, together with the City of London Corporation, to “champion sustainable finance in the UK and abroad.”

In March, the Green Finance Taskforce published a set of recommendations to the government and industry. The first of these was to establish an Institute to develop the UK’s Green Finance market. The green bond market grew by 78% between 2016 to 2017, to $155 billion in green bond issuances. The London Stock Exchange is currently home to 78 green bonds which have raised over $24.5 billion.