International Financial Services London - History

History

British Invisibles itself originated in the Committee on Invisible Exports, set up in April 1968 by the Bank of England and then became the British Invisible Exports Council. It was largely the idea of Cyril Kleinwort who realised that the government was paying much attention to the UK's balance of trade in goods, but little to the UK's invisible earnings from services. In 1984 Patrick Pery, 6th Earl of Limerick had become Chairman of the organisation by which time invisible earnings were accounting for a third of the UK's earnings. He stayed until 1991. On October 19 1990, the organisation (registered as a company) became British Invisibles. In January, 1998, it merged with CEENET, a company set up by the Corporation of London to promote financial services to Eastern Europe, and re-branded itself as BI. It acquired a new Chief Executive, Jeremy Seddon, and a new Deputy Chief Executive, Henrietta Royle. The company was a membership organisation and focused on running promotional events abroad for its members (primarily in the emerging markets), undertaking research on the performance of the financial services industry and providing the secretariat for financial services lobbying in the WTO. BI became known as IFSL on 1 February 2001. Invisibles historically have consisted of services (financial and legal), investment income and transfers. The organisation has in the past published The City Table, giving the order of financial services companies.

With effect from 1 June 2010 IFSL, the independent organisation representing the UK financial services industry internationally, has merged its activities, staff and business membership into TheCityUK, the new promotional body for the UK-based industry. TheCityUK is continuing IFSL's work of promoting the industry around the world, influencing trade policy and regulation, and publishing definitive research on the sector.