GFCI 38 Headlines

• The 38th edition of the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 38) was published today by Z/Yen Group in partnership with the China Development Institute (CDI).
• New York held onto the top position in the index and has now been in first place since GFCI 24, published in September 2018.
• London remains in second place and has further closed the gap in the ratings with New York. Hong Kong retains third position ahead of Singapore.
• Only one rating point now separates each of the top four centres in the index.
• San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Seoul are unchanged in fifth to tenth positions.
• In the top 20 centres, Dubai is up one place to 11th position and Frankfurt down one place to 12th. Tokyo and Zurich entered the top 20, replacing Beijing and Amsterdam.
• The rating for almost all centres improved very slightly, with the average rating across all centres up 0.6%. The largest increase in average ratings was in Eastern Europe & Central Europe, at 1.36% and the lowest was in the Middle East & Africa where average ratings rose by 0.22%.
• Hong Kong takes top position in the separate FinTech ranking, followed by Shenzhen, with New York falling to third place. Singapore has overtaken London to take fourth position. Chinese and US centres continue to feature strongly, with six US centres and six Chinese centres in the FinTech top 20.
• We have researched views on the aspects of regulation that are most important to the development of financial centres. The most important factor was predictability, followed by flexibility, the quality of regulation, and the speed of regulatory response. Cost was identified as the least important aspect by those responding to the survey.

The top 20 centres in GFCI 38 are shown in the table below.

Full details of GFCI 37 can be found at www.globalfinancialcentres.net.

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

“The extremely close ratings of centres in the index shows the intensity of competition among leading financial centres from the highest rated to the lowest. Most are now separated by only a single point on a 1,000 point scale. The common core competitive component is regulation. Predictability and flexibility of regulation provide a secure platform for financial markets to grow, far ahead of cost as a basis for competition.”

ENDS

Information For Editors

About GFCI 38

GFCI 38 rates 120financial centres across the world combining assessments from financial professionals with quantitative data which form instrumental factors.

GFCI 38 uses 28,549 financial centre assessments collected from 4,877 financial services professionals who responded to the GFCI online questionnaire. The GFCI is updated regularly, and ratings change as assessments and instrumental factors change.

To find out more about sponsorship opportunities, joining the Vantage Financial Centres network, further research, and bespoke reports on individual financial centres, please contact us.

Previous Editions

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

Other Public Z/Yen Indices

Alongside the Global Financial Centres Index, Z/Yen publishes the Global Green Finance Index and the Smart Centres Index, providing information on the development of green finance and the places where innovation and new technology is thriving.

Long Finance

The GFCI is part of the Long Finance initiative (www.longfinance.net). This initiative is designed to address the question “When would we know our financial system is working?” This question underlies Long Finance’s goal to improve society’s understanding and use of finance over the long-term. In contrast to the short-termism that defines today’s economic views the Long Finance timeframe is roughly 100 years. We undertake research programmes on Financial Centre Futures, Sustainable Futures, Eternal Coin, and Meta-Commerce. Please get in touch for more details on Long Finance.

Contact

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