We deliver high-impact international development projects that strengthen financial systems, support regulatory reform, and unlock sustainable investment and accelerate economic growth in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs).
Working with our members and together with the UK Government, international partners and host country institutions, we translate the UK’s global financial expertise into practical, country-specific solutions. This includes helping EMDEs design, implement and scale reforms that deliver measurable outcomes and drive economic growth, strengthen domestic institutions and create jobs.
Our work improves investment environments, expands access to finance for businesses – including small and medium enterprises (SMEs) - and unlocks sustainable capital flows. This ultimately helps to facilitate two-way trade and investment opportunities between the UK and partner countries, creating commercial opportunities for UK-based firms while supporting local market development and long-term economic resilience.
Over the past decade, we have delivered a portfolio of projects across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Eurasia, supporting governments to develop resilient, competitive, well-regulated, open and internationally connected financial ecosystems.
Our work focuses on improving the enabling environment for investment - enhancing legal and regulatory frameworks, strengthening institutions, and facilitating dialogue between government and the private sector. This ultimately better enables economic growth, improves capital formation, bolsters foreign direct investment, and supports stronger integration into global markets.
We operate across the full financial and related professional services ecosystem, and focus in particular on how the partnership between the public and private sectors can be a key driver of economic growth. We offer a distinctive model of delivery, combining technical expertise and policy credibility with real-world execution capability and practitioner insight. We bring:
We mobilise senior representatives from across the financial and related professional services ecosystem, policymakers and regulators to deliver coordinated, system-wide reform.
We mobilise senior representatives from across the financial and related professional services ecosystem, policymakers and regulators to deliver coordinated, system-wide reform. Through our membership we provide our countries with privileged access to world-leading expertise across legal, regulatory, financial and advisory services.
Our work is closely aligned with UK Government, embassies and international partners to deliver projects aligned with national and bilateral priorities.
We have a proven track record in high-growth and fragile markets, including conflict-affected settings.
Our projects are designed to deliver tangible outcomes - investment mobilisation, regulatory reform, and institutional capability - not just policy recommendations.
A defining feature of our international development approach is our practitioner-led and outcome-focused delivery model.
Our model is built around practitioner-led delivery - combining policy expertise with real-world execution. Projects are designed and delivered by industry experts actively working in sector across the financial and related professional services industry. We connect industry practitioners directly with governments and regulators, to enure that solutions are implementable, commercially viable and aligned with global best practice
Peer-to-peer engagement between UK experts and in-country stakeholders.
Working groups and sub-working groups to provide ongoing technical strategy and input.
Targeted interventions, including workshops, training, and policy advisory services.
Iterative delivery, adapting to evolving country needs and political contexts.
This approach enables governments to move beyond theoretical reform and implement practical, investable solutions that improve market outcomes and deliver measurable impact. At the same time, it gives our members the opportunity to learn more about future growth markets and shape the operating environment, making it is easier to invest and do business.
Our international development work spans the full financial services ecosystem, with a core focus on:
We advise governments on the feasibility of establishing an IFC and help design and implement IFC models suitable to local conditions that attract global capital and anchor long-term financial sector growth. This can cover everything from governance frameworks, legal systems, regulation, tax and investment strategies.
We support the development of credible, transparent, and internationally aligned regulatory frameworks that reduce risk, improve transparency, increase investor confidence and improve market integrity.
Our projects strengthen domestic capital markets and market infrastructure, improves access to finance and support the development of scalable, investable products.
We help governments establish frameworks for green finance, develop investable Nationally Determined Contribution plans (NDCs) which can attract private sector investment, and align with international standards to support net-zero transition. We build the frameworks and instruments needed to mobilise green capital, support net-zero transitions and align with global standards.
We accelerate innovation through the design of FinTech, ecosystems, regulatory sandboxes and digitisation initiatives to enhance innovation and financial inclusion.
We deliver targeted, tailored and hands-on training programmes for policymakers, regulators, and industry stakeholders to strengthen institutional capability and ensure reforms are implemented effectively. We also train investment promotion agencies in partner markets in how to articulate these economic reform benefits to investors and act as credible gateways for international businesses looking to invest productively in the market.
Evidence from our work shows our impact is consistent: we help partner countries move from ambition to implementation. Our work strengthens the institutions, rules, skills and market connections needed to attract investment, expand access to finance, support private sector growth and deepen trade links with the UK.
By combining UK Government partnership with practitioner-led industry expertise, we create commercially relevant development outcomes: stronger capital markets, more credible regulatory environments, better investor engagement and new opportunities for two-way trade and investment between the UK and high-growth markets.
The City-Ukraine Hub is one of TheCityUK’s flagship international development projects, delivered under the umbrella of UK Government’s TIGER programme, and designed to support Ukraine’s economic resilience, recovery and long-term financial market modernisation. Formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding between TheCityUK, the London Stock Exchange and the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, and featured in the 100-Year Partnership Declaration between the UK and Ukraine, the project provides a structured platform for bringing UK-based financial and related professional services expertise to bear on Ukraine’s most urgent reform and investment challenges.
Our work has included modernising Ukraine’s financial ecosystem and capital markets, supporting corporate twinning between UK and Ukrainian firms, strengthening investment promotion, and building the capacity of regulators, officials and financial sector professionals. The project has been deliberately designed to support Ukraine’s transition from wartime resilience to recovery and reconstruction.
TheCityUK has played a central role in supporting Vietnam’s ambition to establish an international financial centre that can deepen the country’s integration into global capital markets and strengthen its position as a regional financial hub. The project has been delivered as a UK Government-funded initiative and builds on the UK-Vietnam Strategic Partnership and the UK-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, with the explicit objective of deepening bilateral trade and investment links. As part of the project, we established the UK-Vietnam IFC Working Group, bringing together senior stakeholders from both countries.
Our work has included identifying investor concerns, designing an IFC model to address them and supporting the drafting and implementation of landmark legislation known as the 'Resolution About Financial Centres in Vietnam', which sets the gframe works for the establishment and operation of the IFC. We convened working groups to provide ongoing strategic advice and expert technical input to Vietnamese counterparts. We have also provided direct advisory support on the legal, regulatory and operational architecture of the proposed Vietnam International Financial Centre (IFC) and application of common law within it, workshops on the development of a regulatory sandbox, engagement on cybercrime, cybersecurity, and AML/CFT frameworks and progress on guidelines for Vietnam International Financial Centre (IFC) operationalisation.
The project is helping Vietnam translate strong investor interest into on the ground projects by providing regulatory certainty, transparency and alignment to international standards.
TheCityUK has been supporting the establishment of the Lagos International Financial Centre (LIFC), with a focus on designing the institutional, legal and regulatory architecture required to establish a credible and internationally competitive financial centre. The project has brought together government, regulators and firms across the financial and related professional services industry in both the UK and Nigeria, with the aim of supporting Nigeria’s long-term sustainable economic growth and attracting UK and international investors. We and our members have been assisting the Lagos State and Federal Government in establishing an IFC that will provide investors with familiar, predictable, stable, safe, transparent and fast-serviced legal, regulatory and governance regime. Given the vast opportunities in Nigeria, LIFC offers private sector internationally aligned market conditions and protections that will safeguard investments, create high-quality jobs and provide access to the market.
TheCityUK supported the development of carbon markets and sustainable finance expertise in Azerbaijan as part of a broader programme of financial sector capacity building, working in close collaboration with the UK Government and the British Embassy in Baku. The project responded to Azerbaijan’s ambition to diversify its economy, strengthen its financial sector and position itself to participate more effectively in global capital flows linked to the energy transition and climate finance.
The project focused on bridging a critical capability gap between policy ambition and implementation. While Azerbaijan had growing interest in sustainable finance and carbon markets, the technical, regulatory and institutional frameworks required to support market development were still evolving. Our role was therefore to bring practitioner-led expertise to help government stakeholders, regulators and market participants understand how carbon markets function in practice and how they can be designed to attract investment, ensure credibility and align with international standards.
Delivery centred on targeted, hands-on capacity building interventions and structured engagement with key stakeholders across government, regulators and industry. We leveraged the expertise from across our membership to provide access to UK-based experts with direct experience in carbon markets, sustainable finance frameworks and financial regulation. These engagements were designed not only to transfer knowledge, but also to contextualise international best practice within Azerbaijan’s domestic institutional and market realities.
Through this practitioner-led approach, the project supported Azerbaijani stakeholders in understanding the building blocks of a functioning carbon market, including governance models, regulatory oversight, market infrastructure, and the role of financial institutions and exchanges. It also helped clarify how carbon markets link to broader sustainable finance ecosystems, including green finance standards, investment products and climate-related reporting frameworks.
TheCityUK has supported the Government of Mongolia in assessing the feasibility of establishing an IFC to attract greater levels of foreign investment. The project was structured as a scoping and advisory project, recognising that while Mongolia had strong political intent, the institutional, regulatory and market foundations required for a successful IFC were not yet fully in place.
The project provided a rigorous, evidence-based assessment of what would be required to develop an IFC that is credible to international investors. We brought together UK-based legal, regulatory and market practitioners alongside domestic stakeholders to test Mongolia’s proposed IFC model against global comparators, including existing and other emerging financial hubs. This benchmarking approach allowed the project to assess not only the theoretical viability of an IFC in Mongolia, but also its practical competitiveness in attracting internationally mobile capital and financial services firms.
Equally important was the project’s role in strengthening institutional capability and international engagement. By leveraging TheCityUK’s network, the project connected Mongolian stakeholders with UK and global expertise, creating a platform for continued collaboration and knowledge transfer. This will help position Mongolia to access international capital markets more effectively and to align its financial sector development with global standards.
TheCityUK supported the development of Istanbul Financial Centre through a targeted benchmarking and advisory project designed to assess its competitiveness against leading global financial centres and identify the reforms required to attract international capital and financial services firms. The project responded to Turkey’s ambition to position Istanbul as a regional and international financial hub, leveraging its large domestic market and strategic geographic position.
The project provided a rigorous, market-facing assessment of Istanbul’s value proposition from the perspective of internationally mobile financial institutions. We brought together UK-based practitioners and industry experts with experience across global IFCs to benchmark Istanbul against a peer group of established and emerging centres, as well as other developing financial centre initiatives.
The core of the work involved a detailed comparative analysis of Istanbul’s institutional architecture, legal and regulatory frameworks, market infrastructure and ecosystem development. This included assessing the extent to which Istanbul provided the key features required by international investors, such as legal certainty, regulatory independence, specialist dispute resolution, integrated regulatory design, and a clearly defined market proposition. The analysis was supported by structured engagement with Turkish stakeholders and UK-based industry experts, ensuring that the findings reflected both domestic priorities and international market expectations.
TheCityUK supported the Government of Oman in the development of the IFC of Oman, focusing on the legal, regulatory and governance architecture required to establish a credible, internationally competitive financial centre. The Government has now announced the establishment of an IFC, and the relevant legislation was passed in 2025. The intervention took place at a critical stage, when Oman had defined its strategic intent to develop an IFC, but required detailed technical input to translate this into an operational model aligned with global standards.
The project centred on developing the core institutional components that underpin successful financial centres. Drawing on UK expertise and comparative analysis of leading IFCs, we provided technical advice on the design of the centre’s legal framework, including the potential application of internationally recognised legal principles, approaches to dispute resolution, and the institutional separation required to ensure legal certainty for international investors. This work focused on ensuring that the IFC would offer a predictable and enforceable legal environment, which is a critical requirement for globally active financial institutions.
In parallel, we supported the design of a coherent regulatory architecture capable of supporting complex financial activity while maintaining alignment with international standards. This included engagement on how regulatory functions should be structured within the IFC, how oversight could be coordinated across financial services activities, and how the regulatory framework could balance flexibility with credibility to support innovation without undermining market integrity. Particular emphasis was placed on ensuring that the regulatory model would be intelligible and accessible to international firms entering the market, reducing barriers to entry and improving the overall investment proposition.
The technical engagement also extended to the development of a broader enabling environment for the IFC. This included advising on how legal and regulatory choices interact with market development objectives, such as attracting specific financial services segments, facilitating capital flows, and supporting the development of complementary market infrastructure. By linking regulatory and legal design to market outcomes, the project ensured that the IFC model was not only compliant with international benchmarks, but also commercially viable.
TheCityUK’s historical international development portfolio includes work in Kenya, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, alongside other markets across Africa, Eurasia and the Middle East. Our interventions focused on developing IFCs, supporting open and well-regulated financial sectors, improving the implementation of policies that translate political objectives into effective market outcomes, and strengthening international trade.
