CASE STUDY FOUR:

Nearly 200 years and counting: 

Why Scotland remains at the core of abrdn’s global operations

As a global investment business, abrdn operates in more than 30 countries and we compete in markets which are constantly evolving and creating new opportunities. But in our world where nothing stands still for very long there is one constant: after nearly 200 years, our base in Scotland remains integral to our ambitions and purpose to enable our clients to be better investors. 

While we place enormous importance on our heritage, being based in Scotland also makes solid business sense for how we manage and administer £496bn* of our clients’ assets. We currently have more than 2,000 colleagues in Scotland – nearly half of our global workforce. 

The reasons why Scotland is such a great location for financial services are well documented: a deep pool of talent, a competitive cost base, international connectivity, world class universities, a great place to live and work - the list goes on. From our perspective, there is another key ingredient in the mix: technology. 

Advances we are already seeing in areas such as AI, digitisation of assets and blockchain will be transformative for our industry. Fortunately, Scotland is ahead of the game with its rapidly expanding and innovative fintech cluster which is closely aligned to the more ‘traditional’ aspects of financial services. 

A great example of cross-sectoral collaboration is the Centre for Investing Innovation, abrdn’s own multi-year research partnership with The University of Edinburgh to examine how sustainability, thematics and AI and data science can best be embedded in investment frameworks and processes. 

This gives me great confidence that abrdn will continue to have a large presence in Scotland for a long time to come and Scotland’s attractiveness for domestic and international financial services businesses will remain undiminished.

Stephen Bird
Chief Executive
abrdn
*As at 30 June 2023