Finance

Looking to expand or relocate a financial services business? Then it’s time to look at Maryland. We’re confident that the closer you look, the more you’ll like what Maryland has to offer:

Highly competitive Class A and B real estate rates (most space less than $25 per square foot in Baltimore)
A highly trained, well-educated workforce
Favorable regulatory environment with proximity to industry regulators
World class affordable power and telecommunications infrastructure
Highest median household income in the nation ($65,144) with one of the greatest concentrations of high-income households

Global Reach

What’s the strategic advantage of a Maryland location? In a word, ACCESS . To customers. To competitors. To potential partners. And to the rest of the world.

Located roughly halfway between Boston and Atlanta, London and Los Angeles, Maryland’s mid-Atlantic location ensures easy access to key domestic and international financial and consumer centers including New York, Toronto, Charlotte, Chicago, and San Francisco—as well as easy access to leading industry regulators, such as:

Consider a few additional strategic advantages of a Maryland location:

Amtrak service to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York
Three international airports within an hour’s drive
Seven regional airports throughout Maryland serving corporate needs
Redundant, fiber-rich communication network from Verizon valued at $5.5 billion, including SONET ring technology to ensure the integrity of sensitive communication
For companies that are engaged in remittance processing, the Baltimore Main Post Office is ranked in the top ten nationally

Strength and Numbers

They say success breeds success. Maybe that’s why Maryland—with a financial services growth rate that has long outpaced the competition—continues to attract both established leaders and entrepreneurs to a region that already boasts some 13,900 financial firms.

Whether it’s a new company headquarters location, a data or shared service center, an investor center or a back-office operations facility, Maryland offers the opportunity to network with industry leaders, innovators and regulators—and find new business—right in your own backyard.

The following are among the financial services businesses that call Maryland home: Bank of America, Chevy Chase Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Legg Mason, M&T Bank, PNC Bank, Morgan Stanley, Nationwide Mortgage, NCO Group, Provident Bankshares, T. Rowe Price Group, Toyota Financial Services, and Wachovia Bank.

An Exceptional (and Growing) Workforce

Maryland’s numbers speak for themselves:

First ranked among U.S. states in percentage of professional and technical workers (25.7%)
Second among states in percentage of population 25 or older who hold a bachelor's degree or higher (35.1%)
First in percentage of population 25 or older with a graduate or professional degree (15.7%)
7,746 business/management degrees awarded in the state (2005)
In a ranking of MBA programs, the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland College Park ranks 17^th among top public institutions in the U.S., 17th among U.S. schools overall, and 30th worldwide. It also ranks fifth in the world in research. (Source: The Financial Times)

A Business-Friendly Environment

Years of close coordination between the public and private sectors have helped Maryland formulate and execute a strategic plan to effectively support the formation, expansion, and growth of financial businesses—and to encourage entrepreneurship and excellence across the industry.

Among the elements in this framework are ready access to venture capital funds designed to cultivate entrepreneurial activity in the sector, as well as tax incentives and industry incentives such as no usury fees on bank credit card operations and no tax on electronic equipment used in the processing of deposits and loan payments.

Contact the MD BizTeam at 410-767-6870 to learn more about Maryland's confidential site selection services for growing businesses.