Financial services leaders in the UK are optimistic about the first quarter of 2024, with 87% of polled senior executives “confident” their business will experience growth in the period.
According to KPMG UK, which commissioned Opinium to conduct the survey between November 29 and December 6 last year, 79% of insurance executives share the abovementioned optimism. The Q1 outlook among leaders in banking and asset & wealth management, meanwhile, is more positive, with 89% upbeat in terms of growth prospects.
Karim Haji, global and UK head of financial services at KPMG, said in an emailed release: “It’s great to see financial services leaders go into the New Year feeling confident despite ongoing economic turbulence, which is set to continue to challenge the sector in the first quarter.
“While, on the surface, leaders seem less concerned about the specific impact of geopolitical uncertainty, there’s no denying that it is in part adding to inflationary and interest rate pressures.
“With interest rates set to stay high in a bid to tackle persistent inflation, combined with the added uncertainty of looming elections in the UK and USA, it will be interesting to see what impact this has on sector confidence beyond the first quarter.”
Based on the responses of 160 director-level poll participants, the top challenges for financial services firms in Q1 are inflationary pressures (56%), interest rates (46%), and cost pressures (37%).
It was highlighted that only 21% cited geopolitical risks as potentially the biggest challenge in the quarter. Meanwhile 85% of those surveyed believe they can manage business costs throughout the period.
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