Лекция: Investment, Insurance and Asset Servicing

The first half of the 19th century brought the creation of many life assurance companies in Scotland, predominantly on the mutual model. By the 1980s there were 9 members of the Association of Scottish Life Offices but these have demutualised and most were taken over. Standard Life, based in Edinburgh, demutualised and has remained independent.

Starting in 1873 with Robert Fleming's Scottish American Investment Trust, a relatively broad stratum of Scots invested in international investment trust ventures. Around 80,000 Scots held foreign investment assets in the early 20th century.

Nowadays Scotland is one of the world's biggest fund management centres with over £300bn worth of assets directly serviced or managed in the country. Scottish fund management centres have a major presence in areas such as pensions, property funds, investment trusts as well as in retail and private client markets. Similarly asset servicing on behalf of fund managers has become an increasingly important component of the financial services industry in Scotland with Scottish based companies providing expertise in securities servicing, investment accounting, performance measurement, trustee and depositary services and treasury services.