Bath Financial Forum, the group aiming to raise the city’s profile as a centre of excellence for financial services, returns for its second meeting next month with an in-depth look at how the wider economy is impacting on this ambition.
Guest speaker will be Donna Kehoe, the Bank of England’s agent for South West, pictured below, who will talk about the economic outlook for Bath in the light of Brexit and how it is performing against the national and regional picture. 
The Forum was launched in February with the aim of growing the city’s reputation as fertile ground for finance firms.
Its quarterly meetings provide opportunities for financial services firms to collaborate, innovate and discuss the latest trends in relation to local, national and global issues.
They will also be a platform to discuss a specific topic key to the growth of the sector in the city.
The forum was founded by Bath-headquartered regional law firm Royds Withy King, which has a dedicated financial services sector team, and inward investment organisation Invest in Bath. They have been joined by regional accountancy group Bishop Fleming, which has an office in Bath, while Bath Business News is supporting the forum as media partner.
The inaugural meeting discussed a lack of prime office space in Bath of the kind required by firms in the sector.
Since then Invest in Bath has re-branded the city’s enterprise zone as Space In Bath and launched a marketing campaign to promote the first building on the Bath Quays development, which will bring 500,000 sq ft of prime space in 10 new buildings to the city over the next three years, giving it its first-ever planned business quarter and creating up to 9,000 jobs. 
Royds Withy King director of marketing & business development Kevin Peake said the launch of Space In Bath was integral to attracting financial services firms to the city.
Until now there had been a severe lack of grade A office space of the kind demanded by finance businesses – a key factor in forcing some firms to relocate to Bristol.
He said: “The next Bath Financial Forum meeting will hear Donna Kehoe from Bank of England talk about economy and what is on the horizon – not just Brexit. The Forum is designed to promote a strong financial services sector in Bath and attract new financial services firms – especially with the launch of new future offices at the Space In Bath development.”
The meeting takes place on Tuesday June 25 between 5:45pm and 8pm at Royds Withy King, Midland Bridge House, Midland Bridge Road.
