CEO of the Development Bank of Wales Giles Thorley says the question is not whether North Wales can grow, but how that growth is shaped and who benefits from it.

From large industrial estates to stunning coastlines, North Wales is a region of stark contrasts. It combines some of the UK’s most significant industrial and energy assets but also rural and coastal communities and a fantastic tourism sector –communities that face very different economic realities.

That contrast is not a weakness. In fact, in many ways, it is one of the region’s defining strengths. But it does mean that growth, if it is to be sustained and inclusive, requires a more deliberate, place-based approach enabling businesses to invest, scale and compete.

Placing the HQ of the Development Bank of Wales in Wrexham was an acknowledgement that North Wales had historically been underrepresented but is a core strategic region. Not just because of its existing industrial base, but because of the scale of opportunity now emerging as major investment programmes move from planning into delivery.

The question is not whether North Wales can grow. It is how that growth is shaped, and who benefits from it.

Deep foundations

North Wales is often described as a single economic area, but in practice it is highly diverse. Across Ynys Môn, Gwynedd, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham, the economic picture varies considerably. Tourism ranges from the staggering beauty of the mountains and countryside to the glorious beaches and coastline. Increasingly, it also reflects a move towards high-quality, year-round attractions that draw visitors from across the UK and beyond.

Attractions such as Zip World, with sites across the region, have become anchor destinations in their own right, reinforcing North Wales’ reputation as a leading adventure tourism destination and extending the economic impact beyond traditional seasonal peaks. Having served as chair of Zip World, I have seen at close quarters the contribution that businesses like these can make to the region’s economy.

In the north east, particularly around Wrexham and Deeside, there is a strong concentration of advanced manufacturing, engineering and industrial services. These businesses are closely integrated with supply chains in the North West of England and are often export-focused, forming a critical part of the wider UK industrial base. Assets such as Wrexham Industrial Estate, one of the largest in Europe, underline the scale and capability that already exists.

Further west, the picture shifts. Businesses tend to be smaller, owner-managed and often rooted in tourism, hospitality, food production and the foundational economy. These sectors are vital to local communities sustaining employment, skills and resilience in coastal and rural communities.

Both parts of the region matter. The challenge is ensuring that investment reflects that diversity and drives local community impact rather than assuming a one-size-fits-all model.

Growth opportunities are immediate

But there is a clear sense that North Wales is entering a new phase where long planned investment can translate into commercial opportunity.

Energy and decarbonisation are perhaps the most obvious examples. The identification of Wylfa on Anglesey as a site for the UK’s first fleet of small modular reactors, alongside activity in hydrogen, renewables and industrial decarbonisation, points to a long-term structural shift in the region’s economy.

That shift will not just create opportunities for large infrastructure projects. It will ripple through supply chains, creating demand for smaller businesses developing specialist capabilities.

We are already seeing early signs of that. On Anglesey, Ecodetect is developing AI-driven technology to help offshore energy developers monitor environmental impact at scale – a clear example of how innovation and clean growth are beginning to intersect.

Elsewhere, businesses like JBF Group in Wrexham are investing in advanced building materials and low-carbon manufacturing, supported by a mix of public and private capital. There are also clear examples of North Wales businesses scaling successfully into global markets.

Aparito, originally founded in Wrexham, developed digital health solutions to support patients with rare diseases and achieved significant international growth before its acquisition by Eli Lilly and Company. Stories like this demonstrate the region’s ability not only to innovate, but to build businesses that attract global interest and investment.

In addition, public investment initiatives are opening up infrastructure and skills pathways essential for business growth. Their worth goes beyond just providing funding. They also instil confidence in private investors and support long-term business decisions.

Local growth matters

At the same time, growth is being driven by the decisions of thousands of local business owners responding to opportunity in their own markets.

Rib Ride on the Menai Strait is a good example. A well-established tourism business, it is investing to extend its operating season, create new training opportunities and support local supply chains. That kind of incremental growth can be just as important in terms of jobs, skills and local resilience.

Similarly, regeneration-led developments such as those led by The Neighbourhood Group on Anglesey, show how targeted investment can unlock the potential of local assets, in this case through the renovation of disused buildings, while creating long-term economic value.

These investments may look different from those in advanced manufacturing or energy, but they play a critical role in ensuring that growth is felt across the region.

Structural challenges

For all these strengths, it is important to recognise the challenges.

Productivity in North Wales remains below UK averages. Skills gaps persist, particularly in higher-value technical roles. Demographic pressures, including an ageing population and outward migration, risk constraining future labour supply.

Connectivity also continues to be a limiting factor, whether that is digital infrastructure, transport links or access to suitable business premises. These are not new issues, but they do shape the investment decisions businesses are willing and able to make. Productivity, skills availability and connectivity all influence whether firms can scale, modernise or take on new contracts.

Alongside this, the region’s universities play a critical role in underpinning future growth. Bangor University and Wrexham University are not only major employers in their own right, but also key partners in developing the skills pipeline, supporting research and innovation, and anchoring economic activity in their communities. Bangor University is also one of our partners in Economic Intelligence Wales, further strengthening the link between academic insight and economic strategy.

This is where development finance has a specific role to play. Working alongside businesses as long-term partners, not just as providers of funding. In North Wales, we see consistent demand for patient capital. Businesses looking to scale, transition ownership or invest in new capability often require funding that is flexible and aligned to long-term outcomes.

That is particularly true in manufacturing and energy-adjacent supply chains, where investment horizons are longer and returns are not always immediate. It is equally important in smaller, rural businesses where access to commercial finance can be more constrained.

Having a local presence matters here. Local insight is often the difference between a transaction and a long-term partnership.

North Wales has never lacked assets or ambition. What is changing now is the scale of opportunity – from industrial growth in the north east to clean energy on the Island of Anglesey and regeneration across coastal communities.

The task is to connect those opportunities with the right kind of investment. Investment that is patient, that is place-based, and that recognises the diversity of the region. If we get that right, North Wales will not only grow, but to do so in a way that is more balanced, more resilient and more inclusive. That is the ultimate prize.

• Giles Thorley is chief executive of the Development Bank of Wales.

Standard Chartered has fired the latest, and loudest, warning shot in the City’s march towards an artificial intelligence-led workforce, confirming plans to shed almost 7,800 back-office roles by 2030 just as fresh figures show Britain’s jobs market sliding into its weakest patch since the pandemic.

The emerging markets lender, headquartered in the City of London, told investors at a strategy day in Hong Kong that it would strip out more than 15 per cent of its corporate functions over the next four years, with chief executive Bill Winters arguing the move was less about cost and more about reweighting the bank towards technology. Details of the overhaul were set out at the bank’s investor event, which also unveiled a target to lift income per employee by around a fifth by 2028.

“It’s not cost cutting: it’s replacing, in some cases, lower-value human capital with the financial capital and investment capital we’re putting in,” Winters told analysts. The FTSE 100 group said it was “scaling practical uses of automation, advanced analytics and AI to streamline processes, improve decision-making and enhance both client service and internal efficiency”.

The cuts will land hardest in human resources, risk and compliance, with the bank declining to give a UK breakdown. Operations understood to be in the firing line include sizeable back-office hubs in India, China, Malaysia and Poland, although a chunk of the reduction is expected to come through natural attrition and internal redeployment rather than outright redundancy.

A sharper edge from the ONS

The timing has done Standard Chartered few favours. The Office for National Statistics said this morning that UK vacancies fell by 28,000 to 705,000 in the three months to April, the lowest tally in five years, while the unemployment rate edged up to 5 per cent in the three months to March. More striking still, payrolled employment dropped by 100,000 in April alone, suggesting firms are no longer simply easing off the hiring pedal but actively trimming headcount.

Liz McKeown, the ONS director of economic statistics, said lower-paying sectors such as hospitality and retail had seen “some of the largest falls in vacancies and payroll numbers”. Sanjay Raja, chief UK economist at Deutsche Bank, was blunter: the figures, he said, would “stop the MPC in its tracks”, with unemployment running hotter than forecast and payrolls suffering what he described as a “mammoth fall”.

For SME owners, that combination, slowing demand for labour, a softer high street and a Bank of England that may now hesitate on rate cuts, is the most uncomfortable since the post-Covid wage squeeze of 2022.

Not alone in the City

Standard Chartered’s announcement adds to a thickening pile of bank restructurings driven, at least rhetorically, by AI. HSBC has flagged that up to 20,000 roles are at risk as it accelerates its own automation programme, while Morgan Stanley is cutting around 2,500 jobs even as revenues hit record highs. DBS, the Singaporean lender, has already warned of around 4,000 contract and temporary positions going, and Meta, Amazon and Oracle have unveiled their own sizeable reductions as capital is funnelled towards data centres rather than desks.

The pattern is no longer fringe. Recent research suggests one in six UK employers expects to make AI-driven job cuts within the next year, with clerical, junior managerial and administrative roles consistently identified as the most exposed. For smaller businesses sitting downstream of the FTSE giants, from compliance bureaux servicing the big banks to back-office software vendors, the message from Winters this week is awkward: the customer base for routine human processing is shrinking, and quickly.

Charles Radclyffe, the AI entrepreneur, framed the structural shift bluntly. “Every time we bill [for a month’s AI work],” he said, “that is a job from the economy gone and moved into a data centre.”

What it means for SMEs

For UK SMEs, the read-across is twofold. First, the model adopted by Winters, running headcount through the lens of income per employee rather than absolute cost, is already filtering down to mid-market boardrooms, and finance directors should expect to be asked the same productivity questions in their next budget cycle. Second, the rising unemployment figure quietly rewrites the talent equation: the war for back-office staff that defined the past three years is easing, but so is the spending power of the consumers those staff support.

If Standard Chartered is right that the bank of 2030 will run on materially less human capital, the question for British smaller firms is not whether to follow, but how fast they can sensibly do so without hollowing out the institutional knowledge that makes them defensible in the first place.

Jamie Young

Jamie is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, bringing over a decade of experience in UK SME business reporting.
Jamie holds a degree in Business Administration and regularly participates in industry conferences and workshops.

When not reporting on the latest business developments, Jamie is passionate about mentoring up-and-coming journalists and entrepreneurs to inspire the next generation of business leaders.

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Britain’s small and medium-sized businesses have been put on notice. From 19 June 2026, exactly one month from today, every organisation that handles personal data will, by law, be required to operate a formal complaints process. Those that fail to prepare risk regulatory action, reputational damage and the slow drip of customer trust eroding away.

The new obligations flow from section 103 of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, the most significant reshaping of the UK’s data protection landscape since the post-Brexit settlement. And in a clear signal that the Information Commissioner’s Office is anxious to avoid a repeat of the GDPR scramble of 2018, deputy commissioner Emily Keaney has used the four-week countdown to issue a direct appeal to the smaller end of the market.

“There is still plenty of time to act, and the ICO is here to support you,” Ms Keaney said. “We know that smaller organisations are less likely to have formal complaints processes in place, and that is exactly why we have designed this guidance with you in mind.”

What the new law actually requires

For SME owners and finance directors who have not yet digested the detail, the statutory obligations are mercifully short. Under the new regime, every organisation must give individuals a clear and accessible route to raise a data protection complaint, whether by email, online form, telephone or post. Receipt of a complaint must be acknowledged within 30 days. Businesses must then, “without undue delay”, take appropriate steps to investigate, keep the complainant informed of progress, and communicate the outcome.

Crucially, there are no carve-outs. The rules apply to the corner shop with a customer mailing list just as much as to the FTSE 250 financial services firm. Privacy notices will also need updating to make clear that customers have a right to complain directly to the organisation before escalating to the regulator.

Why this matters more than it might look

On paper, the changes appear modest, a tweak to administrative housekeeping rather than the seismic shock that GDPR delivered seven years ago. But seasoned compliance professionals warn that complacency would be a mistake.

For the first time, individuals will have a statutory right to complain directly to the organisation handling their data, and to expect a structured response within a defined timeframe. That changes the calculus on everything from subject access requests to the handling of data breaches. The ICO has indicated that sectors generating the highest volume of complaints, healthcare, financial services, technology and retail, should expect particular scrutiny.

There is also a commercial logic at work. Resolving a grievance quickly and fairly tends to prevent it from metastasising into something more serious, whether a formal regulatory referral or a customer departure. As any SME operator who has watched a one-star Trustpilot review go viral can attest, the cost of getting the response wrong can dwarf the cost of getting the process right. The wider context is one of rising data risk, with the ICO already pressing the technology sector to embed privacy by design into AI products, a sign of how high the regulatory bar is climbing.

The ICO’s olive branch

The regulator’s tone this time is markedly different from the rather schoolmasterly approach that characterised the early GDPR rollout. The guidance, published in February following a public consultation that drew more than 85 responses, is studded with practical examples and worked-through scenarios pitched squarely at smaller firms without dedicated compliance teams.

“A data protection complaint can come from any customer at any time,” Ms Keaney noted. “Having a clear process means you can respond quickly, resolve issues fairly and protect the trust your customers place in you. We are not here to catch businesses out, we are here to help you get ready.”

That conciliatory framing should not, however, be mistaken for indefinite patience. Once the 19 June commencement date passes, the ICO will have the power to take enforcement action against organisations that fail to operate a compliant process, and the line between supportive regulator and active enforcer can move quickly.

A four-week action list

For business owners still unsure where to begin, the practical steps are reasonably straightforward. Decide who inside the business will own the complaints process and ensure they have the authority to investigate and respond. Build a simple, visible route for customers to raise complaints — usually a dedicated email address or web form, signposted in the privacy notice. Document the workflow, including how the 30-day acknowledgement deadline will be met. Train any customer-facing staff on what to do if a complaint lands in their inbox.

Owners who already operate under data protection frameworks will recognise much of this from existing good practice. For a refresher on the broader compliance landscape, our complete guide to GDPR compliance in the UK sets out the foundations, while our explainer on the difference between data controllers and processors is worth bookmarking for any business that shares customer data with third parties.

The bottom line

For Britain’s 5.5 million SMEs, the message from regulators is clear: 19 June is not a target, it is a deadline. The four weeks ahead are not an invitation to delay, but a window to prepare. Done well, the new complaints process is a modest piece of administrative plumbing that can quietly strengthen customer relationships. Done badly, or not at all, it is a regulatory exposure that few small businesses can afford to carry.

The ICO has, unusually, all but rolled out a welcome mat. The smart move for SME owners is to walk through the door before someone else knocks.

Jamie Young

Jamie is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, bringing over a decade of experience in UK SME business reporting.
Jamie holds a degree in Business Administration and regularly participates in industry conferences and workshops.

When not reporting on the latest business developments, Jamie is passionate about mentoring up-and-coming journalists and entrepreneurs to inspire the next generation of business leaders.

New York City’s LaGuardia Airport is bringing science fiction to the terminal with the debut of an AI-powered hologram concierge designed to help travelers find gates, lounges and baggage claim through face-to-face conversations.

The digital assistant, nicknamed “Bridget,” was unveiled this week inside Terminal B, where the hologram chats with passengers in real time and helps them navigate the busy area.

Unlike prerecorded holograms used elsewhere for greetings or ads, Bridget responds to travelers’ questions conversationally, offering directions to gates, baggage claim, lounges and shops.

The hologram speaks English and Spanish, with more languages planned, and includes accessibility features such as closed captioning and wheelchair-friendly controls.

AIRPORT ROBOTS HANDLE BAGGAGE IN TOKYO TRIAL

The hologram chats with passengers in real time to help them find gates, lounges, shops and baggage claim in the busy terminal. (Laguardia Gateway Partners / Unknown)

Airport officials say the system is designed to support — not replace — human customer service staff, especially during crowded travel periods.

The AI digital assistant, nicknamed “Bridget,” was unveiled this week inside LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal B. (Laguardia Gateway Partners / Unknown)

“Most people think of airports as stressful and confusing environments, but LaGuardia’s Terminal B leads the world in changing all that,” said David Nussbaum, founder of Proto Hologram, which developed the hologram software.

Nussbaum said the technology will provide a more personalized experience “in ways that feel natural and intuitive,” adding “the future of travel has begun at LaGuardia.”

Proto Hologram developed the hologram. (Laguardia Gateway Partners / Unknown)

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The hologram currently stands near Terminal B’s food hall, with additional units expected to roll out across the terminal’s concourses.

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LaGuardia’s Terminal B has become known for testing new travel technology as airports increasingly look for ways to speed up navigation and reduce passenger frustration.

Operator

Good morning. My name is Tiffany, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Avidbank Holdings, Inc. First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call.

Bryan C. Polster

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for being here, and welcome to our 2026 Annual Shareholders Meeting of Avidbank Holdings. And my name is Bryan Polster, I serve as the lead independent Director of the Board of Directors of the Bank.

Also on behalf of the Board of Directors of our company, I’m very pleased that you could be with us today here, in-person, for our meeting. I want to thank you all for all of your active participation, active interest and support of the bank is very meaningful to the organization in total. Thank you for that.

I also want to give a special welcome to any of the people attending virtually. I’d remind everyone that while in attendance virtually from — or the formality of shareholder votes that you will not be able to change any of the votes that have been previously submitted, but for — and normally be considered part of the quorum for legal or quorum purposes. Shareholders participating via the audio conference call will not be able to vote or change any previously submitted votes, and no questions may be submitted through the audio conference call.

It’s my pleasure this morning to introduce the officers of the company and the bank who are present with us today. First of all, I’d like to introduce Mark Mordell, our Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board; Pat Oakes, our Chief Financial Officer; Ms. Gina Thoma-Peterson, our Chief Operating

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