GFCI 40 Headlines

• The 40th edition of the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 40) was published today by Z/Yen Group in partnership with the China Development Institute (CDI).
• New York continues to lead the index, in first place since GFCI 24, published in September 2018.
• New York has a lead of four rating points over London, with Hong Kong and Singapore only one and two points below London.

• Zurich joins the top 10, replacing San Francisco while Abu Dhabi, Beijing, and Osaka move into the top 20, replacing Paris, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt.
• Overall, the rating for the majority of centres improved, with the average rating across all centres up 0.8%. The largest fall in average ratings was in Eastern Europe & Central Asia, down 1.09%, and the largest increase was in Asia/Pacific, where average ratings were up 1.48%.
• Hong Kong continues to lead the FinTech rankings, followed by New York, Shenzhen, Singapore, and Shanghai.
• We have researched which policy areas financial centres should prioritise most urgently over the next five years. The policy areas mentioned most often by respondents to the GFCI survey were:

1. Investing In Digital Infrastructure, Including Cloud, Data Connectivity, and Cybersecurity Resilience.
2. Attracting Fintech And Digital Asset Businesses.
3. Strengthening Anti-Money Laundering And Financial Crime Frameworks.
4. Deepening Capital Markets.

The top 20 centres in GFCI 40 are shown in the table below.

Full details of GFCI 40 can be found at www.globalfinancialcentres.net.

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

“Over twenty years the Global Financial Centres Index has watched the remorseless digitalisation of finance alongside the relentless, and essential, financial pivot to Asia. Six Asia/Pacific centres are in the top 10 in the 40th edition of the Global Financial Centres Index. Seven are in the top 10 in the GFCI FinTech ranking. The continued strength of Asian finance, and the strength of their technology and AI base is a challenge to traditional centres in a world where geopolitics plays havoc with financial centre attractiveness and AI upends the stability of financial IT stacks.”

ENDS

About GFCI 40

GFCI 40 rates 117 financial centres across the world combining assessments from financial professionals with quantitative data which form instrumental factors.

GFCI 40 uses 39,531 assessments of financial centres provided by 6,147 financial services professionals who responded to the GFCI online questionnaire. The GFCI is updated regularly, and ratings change as assessments and instrumental factors change.

The data on which the index is based was largely collated after the start of the recent conflict in the Middle East.

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.