For the first time in the Index's history, New York knocks London from the top of the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI). Over the weekend, Z/Yen Group published the 15th edition of the GFCI, sponsored by the Qatar Financial Centre Authority.
The main headlines include:
- New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore remain the top four global financial centres. New York is now the leading centre although its lead against London is insignificant - two points on a scale of 1,000. London being overtaken by New York in the index is mainly due to London falling (it is the largest faller in the top 50 centres).
- The 'big four' financial centres are being chased. It is easy to focus on New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore but others are catching up and now close behind. Three years ago (in GFCI 9) the difference between first and tenth was 117 points. The top ten centres are now within 75 points of each other.
- The leading Asian Centres pull away from the weaker. There is a 'shakeout' in Asia, the leading centres - such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul and Shenzhen are doing significantly better than the weaker centres (e.g. Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Jakarta and Mumbai).
- Middle East centres continue to rise in the index. Qatar remains the leading Middle Eastern Centre just ahead of Dubai. Riyadh is up 16 places, Bahrain is up 12 places and Abu Dhabi is up 10 places.
- Financial centres in Europe are still in turmoil. 23 of the 27 European centres in the GFCI declined by rank. Significant falls include Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Dublin, Madrid, Lisbon, and Rome. Athens in last place (83rd) is now 82 points adrift of Reykjavik, second to last.
- Offshore centres struggle with reputation and regulation. All except Gibraltar and the British Virgin Islands decline in the ranks.
GFCI 15 provides profiles, rating and rankings for 83 financial centres (including three new centres - Busan, Almaty and Casablanca), drawing on two separate sources of data - instrumental factors (external indices) and responses to an online survey. 103 factors have been used in GFCI 15, of which 52 have been updated since GFCI 14 and 1 is new. GFCI 15 uses 25,441 financial centre assessments completed by 3.246 financial services professionals.
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