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Glasgow has been jointly ranked as the third most attractive UK city for financial services foreign direct investment (FDI).

Our city, alongside Edinburgh, is behind London in first place and Manchester in second in the 2018 UK Attractiveness Report by accounting and professional services firm EY.

Glasgow had the third largest number of FDI projects in the last decade, joint with Leeds, while Edinburgh tied for fourth place with Birmingham. London and Manchester again took the top slots.

Overall, Scotland was the second most attractive location in the UK for FDI, for the fifth consecutive year.

Second place was tied with the north west of England, with both locations having seven of the UK's 78 FDI projects in 2017, while London came first with 47.

The number of projects UK-wide dropped markedly from the record of 106 in 2016, despite financial services investment into Europe as a whole increasing by 13%.

Sue Dawe, EY's head of financial services in Scotland, said: "Scotland has once again proved its credentials as an attractive destination for foreign direct investment in our revered financial services industry.

"While the number of financial services FDI projects has fallen by 22% from 2016 to 2017, it is worth noting the size of projects is healthy with Glasgow and Edinburgh the only two UK locations to attract projects with more than 200 jobs.

"Combined, these accounted for 40% of jobs created by the top 10 financial services FDI projects in the UK in 2017.

"However, the significant fall in financial services FDI into the UK from 2016 to 2017 acts as a reminder of the challenge ahead in terms of remaining attractive to investors in the future and greater clarity around Brexit will be vitally important."