New York once again, emerged at the top in the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) followed by London as Chinese cities fell lower in the rankings according to the ranking reported on Friday.
The Z/Yen Group published the index in collaboration with the think-tank China Development Institute. The GFCI has been publishing reports which chart the progress of the leading financial centres in the world semiannually for the past 15 years.
The ranking comes as good news especially for London after it lost access to the financial market of the European Union following Britain’s exit from the bloc’s orbit in December last year.
GFCI said, “The relatively strong performance of New York and London suggests that the financial services sectors in these cities managed to sustain their performance despite radical changes in working practices during the last 18 months,”.
Hong Kong and Singapore ranked as third and fourth respectively. Both observed a drop of 25 points in the ratings.
Executive Chairman of Z/Yen Michael Mainelli commented,” We see two patterns in the results for GFCI 30 – confidence in the recovery of the North American and Western European economies following the shock of 2020; and a leveling off following the rapid rise of Asia/Pacific centres and their economic stability in the COVID-19 pandemic,”.
“Competition remains tight. Outside the top two centres, only five points on a 1,000 point scale separate the centres ranked third to eighth,” added Mainelli.
In a survey for fintech centres, New York and Shanghai maintained the first and second positions, while London climbed two spots to emerge at the third position owing to Britain prioritizing fintech-friendly policies.
