I was in London last week for some meetings and interviews. In between work, I took some time out to visit several places like the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace. London is known to be a melting pot of diverse cultures, gourmet food and stunning architecture. In this article, I share about London’s top 10 business facts:

1)  With a population of just under 9 million, London is the most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom.

2)  Following the financial deregulation of the mid-1980s, London has outperformed other UK regions for most of the past 30 years in terms of economic growth.

3)  With an estimated GDP output of USD765 billion, London contributes about 30% of the overall UK GDP.

4)  London is a well-known trading hub for Forex and bond trading, in addition to banking activities and insurance services.

5)  Out of the top 10 global cities with the most billionaires, London comes in at number 5 with a total of 55 billionaires.

6)  The United Kingdom’s central bank, the Bank of England, is the second oldest central bank in the world and is located in London. The bank controls the monetary system and regulates the issue of currency notes in the United Kingdom.

7)  London is also the seat of the London Stock Exchange, which is the largest stock exchange in Europe. The London bullion market, managed by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), is the world’s largest location for gold and silver wholesale trading.

8)  In September 2018, the global financial centres index ranking by Z/Yen showed that New York had toppled London to take the top place for the first time since 2015.

9)  On a day known as Black Wednesday (16th Sept 1992), the world’s greatest currency speculator George Soros broke the Bank of England by shorting the Pound and made over USD1 billion profit in a single day.

10)  In 2012, Ghana-born Kweku Adoboli sealed his reputation as London’s biggest rogue trader by booking fake profits to cover up massive losses – causing Swiss banking giant UBS to lose over 1.4 billion pounds in the process. He was jailed for 7 years.