With salaries up to 33% lower than London, it's not hard to see why Yorkshire and Humber is fast becoming one of the UK's largest and most important financial, business, and professional services centres outside London.

Across the region, the combined banking, insurance, financial and business services sector employs around 344,259 people(ONS 2003), with over 100,000 employed in the sector in Leeds alone (24% of the cities employment).

There are 110 insurance companies, 200 accounting firms and 150 law firms based in Leeds, and Leeds is also home to 30 financial call centres and is the leading city in the UK for telephone-delivered banking and related financial services.

In Leeds, five of the big six Leeds law firms collectively employ 2,000 people, while the city also features one of the largest concentrations of call centres in the UK employing between 7,000 and 8,000 people in financial and related services and another 20,000 people in call centre operations outside the financial and related services sector.

In South Yorkshire there are around 20,000 people employed in the telephone-delivered banking and related financial services sector, while the Government is also following the investment trend with over 3,000 employees already here with more to follow.

York is home to both the head office for the UK life insurance operation of Norwich Union Life and a BT Customer Service Centre and Directory Assistance Centre, collectively employing some 4,000 people. The CPP Group has also expanded its portfolio of products in York and now employs over 1,500 people.