London remains the financial capital of the world – closely followed by New York, Hong Kong and Singapore, according to an analysis of the world’s major financial centres.
In recent years, Asia-Pacific centres were rising up the ranks, but their progress seems to have stalled, according to the latest Global Financial Centres Index.
The cities making up the rest of the top 10 are: – Zurich, Seoul, Tokyo, Chicago, Geneva and Toronto.
The index looks at 77 leading international financial centres and compares them on people, business environment, infrastructure, market access and competitiveness.
The comparisons are then weighted according to a survey.
The latest survey suggests rising stars like Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei and Shenzen have suffered significant recent declines – with centres on mainland China faring worst.
Middle East cities rising
However, the survey suggests these financial centres will rise again to become major players.
Other centres rising up the ranks are the Middle East cities of Qatar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh.
“As the balance of the global economy shifts more towards emerging economies, I believe we can expect to see financial centres in these countries grow in terms of influence. Qatar, with its strong economic principles and long term commitment to building its financial sector, is well placed to benefit from this fundamental trend set to redefine our investment landscape,” said Dr Abdulaziz Al-Ghorairi, of Commercialbank Capital, who wrote the report’s foreward.
The survey also points out that traditional offshore centres have suffered ‘major reputational damage’ in the past four years over links with tax management.
Jersey (20th) and Guernsey (28th) keep their places as the leading offshore centres.
“The Euro crisis continues to be reflected in the ratings of the financial centres within the weaker Euro economies. Madrid, Lisbon, Dublin and Athens were all down during the past two years,” said the report. “These declines have continued this year. Frankfurt and Paris both rose slightly last year, but this has reversed in the latest report.
US performance disappoints
“Policymakers in Istanbul have been putting some resources into developing Istanbul as a regional financial hub and this is beginning to be reflected with the city moving up five places in the rankings.”
Results in North America were mixed, with New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and Washington DC all seeing falls.
In Canada, Toronto saw a small decline while Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver have all risen.
In South America, Sao Paulo shows the largest rise of the three Latin American centres.
“Confidence amongst financial services professionals, measured by average assessments of the leading centres was relatively stable during 2011 and the first half of 2012. This is demonstrated by a stability in the ‘spread’ (measured by standard deviation) of assessments,” said the report.
