London Tops Financial Centres League

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

24 March 2011

The latest Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI), produced by the Z/Yen Group, showed that London again came out on top, followed closely by New York and Hong Kong, although confidence amongst financial services professionals seemed to have fallen in the past six months, as is shown by lower overall ratings.

In fact, the main headline arising out of the new GFCI was said to be the fact that there again remained no significant difference between London, New York and Hong Kong in the ratings, with respondents continuing to believe that these centres work together for mutual benefit across time zones.

Asia continued to exhibit enhanced competitiveness with eight centres in the top twenty (against six North American centres and five European ones). In the first GFCI in March 2007, there were only three Asian centres in the top twenty. This time, Seoul was the largest riser, moving into 16th place, up 25 points in the ratings.

It was also pointed out that, when questioned about which financial centres were likely to become more significant in the next few years, the top five centres mentioned were all Asian – Shanghai, Singapore, Seoul, Hong Kong and Beijing. Asian cities also filled the top six places when respondents indicated where their organizations were most likely to open new offices.

Despite Dubai’s widely publicized economic problems, it still held the GFCI’s top position in the Middle East (and 28th overall), followed by Qatar which had moved up four places. Bahrain continued to slip, down seven places to 49th (the largest decline in this GFCI).

Offshore centres (with the exception of the British Virgin Islands) fell further than the average, continuing a trend since the financial crisis began. Jersey and Guernsey remained the leading offshore centres, while Dublin’s International Financial Services Centre continued its decline in the GFCI.

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