New York continues to Head Up The Global Financial Centres Index Ratings

London’s Position Challenged By Leading Asian Centres

GFCI 29 Headlines

• New York again headed the rankings in the Global Financial Centres Index 29, launched today by Z/Yen Group in partnership with the China Development Institute (CDI) in London and Hong Kong.
• London fell to only one point ahead of third place Shanghai.
• Hong Kong moved up a place to fourth, one point behind Shanghai, with Singapore in fifth position. Tokyo dropped three places from fourth to seventh.
• Frankfurt replaced San Francisco in the top 10 in this edition, gaining seven rank places, perhaps benefiting from the exit of the UK from the European Union.
• Within the top 30 centres, Vancouver, Seoul, Sydney, Milan, and Stuttgart rose by more than five places.
• GFCI 29 shows a relatively high level of stability in the top half of the index, with few centres changing 10 or more places in the rankings. In the lower half of the index, there was more volatility, perhaps reflecting some uncertainty about the resilience of emerging and smaller centres.
• The average rating of centres in the index dropped only 3.5 points (-0.55%) from GFCI 28 (41 points from GFCI 27 to GFCI 28), which may indicate more confidence in the financial system than in the first stages of the covid-19 pandemic.
• The fact that overall ratings have not recovered to the levels that we saw in 2019 reflects the continuing uncertainty around international trade, the impact of the covid-19 pandemic, and geopolitical and local unrest.
• Nine of the top 10 centres in the index fell in the ratings, with London and Tokyo falling over 10 points. With the top centres dropping, might this be due to central banks taking the reins during covid-19?

The top 20 centres in GFCI 29 are shown in the table below.

FinTech

• New York continues to lead the FinTech ranking, followed by Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, and London.
• Tel Aviv and Los Angeles enter the top 10.

Full details of GFCI 29 can be found at www.globalfinancialcentres.net

Professor Michael Mainelli, Executive Chairman of Z/Yen, said:

“GFCI 29 ratings have not returned to the levels of 2019, reflecting a welter of instability in international trade, politics, and economics, not least large-scale interventions by central banks and questions about the future treatment of commercial banks, insurers, and payment providers. ‘Building back’ will see major changes to investments and taxation. GFCI is most active on the Pacific Rim. Only 44 points on a thousand point scale separate the top 10 centres. A four point rise would place Singapore second only to New York. It’s tight at the top, and no time for complacency.”

ENDS

Information For Editors

About GFCI 29

GFCI 28 rates 114 financial centres across the world combining assessments from financial professionals with quantitative data which form instrumental factors.

GFCI 29 uses 65,507 financial centre assessments collected from 10,774 financial services professionals who responded to the GFCI online questionnaire. The GFCI is updated regularly and ratings change as assessments and instrumental factors change.

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Previous Editions

Previous editions of the GFCI can be accessed at www.longfinance.net/programmes/financialcentrefutures/global-financial-centres-index/publications.html

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Contact

For more information please email Mike Wardle at mike_wardle@zyen.com or by phone on +44 (0) 20 7562 9562 or +44 (0) 7880 737319.