Financial services and the urban system: An exploration

Financial services have come to represent an increasingly important sector in the economies of developed nations. Although a substantial literature ha s accumulated on this topic, relatively little attention has been given to the locational aspects of financial services. An attempt is made here to ex amine the spatial structure of this sector in terms of the urban system, dr awing on the principles of central-place theory, the limitations and applic ability of which are considered. This is followed by a discussion of the sa lient features of financial services within the overall urban system, After describing the differentiation of financial services in frequency terms, t he hierarchical structure of the UK urban system is outlined. These two asp ects are then related, in order to demonstrate the ordered nature of the sp atial structure of financial services. There follows a brief discussion of the findings and their implications for future work.