City of London Since 1991 Canary Wharf, a few miles east of the City in Tower Hamlets, has become another centre for London's financial services industry which houses many banks and other institutions formerly located in the Square Mile. Although growth has continued in both locations, and there have been relocations in both directions, the Corporation has come to realise that its planning policies may have been causing financial firms to choose Canary Wharf as a location. Many major global companies have their headquarters in the City, including Aviva, BT Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Old Mutual, Prudential, Schroders, Standard Chartered, and Unilever. A
Wards of the City of London Wards of the City of London The City of London (also known simply as "the City") is divided into 25 wards. The City is the historic core of the much wider metropolis of Greater London, with an ancient and "sui generis" form of local government, which avoided the many local government reforms elsewhere in the country in the 19th and 20th centuries. Unlike other modern-day English local authorities, the City of London Corporation has two council bodies: the now largely ceremonial Court of Aldermen and the Court of Common Council. The wards are a survival of the medieval governmental system