Global Financial Centres Index

The Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) is a ranking of the competitiveness of financial centres based on over 29,000 financial centre assessments from an online questionnaire together with over 100 indices from organisations such as the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the Economist Intelligence Unit. The first index was published in March 2007. It has been jointly published twice per year by Z/Yen Group in London and the China Development Institute in Shenzhen since 2015,^[1] and is widely quoted as a source for ranking financial centres.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

Ranking

The ranking is an aggregate of indices from five key areas: "business environment", "financial sector development", "infrastructure factors", "human capital", "reputation and general factors". As of March 12, 2019, the top centres worldwide are:^[6]

Rank	Change	Centre	Rating	Change
1		New York City	794	6
2		London	787	1
3		Hong Kong	783
4		Singapore	772	3
5		Shanghai	770	4
6		Tokyo	756	10
7	4	Toronto	755	27
8	1	Zurich	739	7
9	1	Beijing	738	5
10		Frankfurt	737	7
11	4	Sydney	736	2
12	3	Dubai	733	11
13		Boston	732	7
14	2	Shenzhen	730	4
15	5	Melbourne	729	30
16	2	San Francisco	727	3
17	1	Los Angeles	724	3
18	6	Montreal	722	32
19	1	Vancouver	721	12
20	3	Chicago	717
21	8	Cayman Islands (BOT)	713	30
22	6	Casablanca	712	28
23	2	Tel Aviv	710	21
24	5	Guangzhou	708
25	5	Bermuda (BOT)	705	25
26		Abu Dhabi	702	16
27	4	Paris	699	8
28	1	Geneva	698	13
29	2	Qingdao	694	15
30	9	Luxembourg	691	3
31	9	Osaka	690	3
32	4	Washington, D.C.	689	34
33	13	Monaco	686	57
34	2	Taipei	676	6
35	8	Edinburgh	674	40
36	3	Seoul	668
37	16	Madrid	667	48
38	1	Dublin	658	6
39	1	Kuala Lumpur	652	14
40	5	Wellington	647	17
41	6	Amsterdam	646	11
42	8	Doha	642	20
43	4	Munich	641	2
44	7	Vienna	640	19
45	11	Milan	638	25
46	2	Busan	636	5
47		Jersey (CD)	635	7
48	9	Johannesburg	634	22
49	NR	Stuttgart	633	NR
50	9	Hamburg	632	4
51	10	Nur-Sultan	631	32

Rank	Change	Centre	Rating	Change
52	2	Brussels	630	13
53	5	Bangkok	629	3
54	5	Mauritius	628	3
55	3	Stockholm	627	16
56	18	Cape Town	626	25
57	NR	Kuwait City	625	NR
58	16	Calgary	621	14
59	9	Istanbul	620	30
60	10	Lisbon	619	34
61	1	Mexico City	616	18
62	12	Prague	614	33
63	13	Glasgow	613	9
64		Oslo	612	16
65		Rio de Janeiro	611	17
66	11	São Paulo	609	7
67	8	Bahrain	608	1
68	8	Jakarta	607	28
69	8	GIFT City-Gujarat	606	28
70	4	Warsaw	605	13
71		Budapest	603	19
72	9	British Virgin Islands (BOT)	602	5
73	7	Saint Petersburg	601	26
74	20	Helsinki	599	43
75	15	Guernsey (CD)	598	5
76	5	Copenhagen	597	24
77	4	Liechtenstein	596	14
78	9	Riga	595	30
79	18	Sofia	593	49
80	5	Gibraltar (BOT)	591	11
81	3	Tianjin	589	12
82	8	Panama	588	26
83	1	Reykjavik	587	17
84	1	Isle of Man (CD)	586	18
85	18	Bahamas	585	6
86	14	Rome	584	1
87	8	Chengdu	583	7
88	5	Moscow	582	11
89	1	Malta	581	17
90	3	Buenos Aires	580	23
91	22	Riyadh	575	13
92		Mumbai	573	15
93	2	Cyprus	572	12
94	42	Tallinn	569	51
95		Baku	567	12
96	14	New Delhi	565	7
97	NR	Nairobi	564	NR
98	12	Manila	562	4
99	10	Hangzhou	561	2
100	4	Almaty	560	10
101	1	Dalian	520	21
102	4	Athens	519	1

N.B. Stuttgart, Kuwait City, and Nairobi are the latest new entries, having not been included in the GFCI 24 ranking. Trinidad and Tobago was omitted from this GFCI 25 (current) ranking.

Financial centre profiles

This report ranked 102 international financial centers into the following matrix, as of 12 March 2019:^[6]

Level	Broad & deep Global Leaders	Relatively broad Global Diversified	Relatively deep Global Specialists	Emerging Global Contenders
Global	Abu Dhabi Beijing Chicago Dubai Hong Kong London Los Angeles New York City Shanghai Singapore Sydney Tokyo Toronto Zürich	Amsterdam Brussels Dublin Frankfurt Milan Paris San Francisco	Nur-Sultan Luxembourg Qingdao Shenzhen Washington, D.C.	Chengdu Moscow
Level	Broad & deep Established International	Relatively broad International Diversified	Relatively deep International Specialists	Emerging International Contenders
International	Boston Calgary Geneva Hamburg Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Montreal Munich Seoul Stuttgart Vancouver	Athens Bangkok Copenhagen Edinburgh Istanbul Johannesburg Rome Stockholm Vienna	Almaty Bermuda Busan Casablanca Cayman Islands GIFT City-Gujarat Guangzhou Guernsey Jersey Rio de Janeiro Taipei	British Virgin Islands Buenos Aires Dalian Doha Hangzhou Jakarta Malta New Delhi
Level	Broad & deep Established Players	Relatively broad Local Diversified	Relatively deep Local Specialists	Emerging Evolving Centres
Local	Budapest Mexico City Osaka Prague Wellington	Glasgow Helsinki Lisbon Oslo Tel Aviv Warsaw	Bahamas Baku Cape Town Isle of Man Kuwait City Liechtenstein Monaco Panama Riga São Paulo Sofia Saint Petersburg	Bahrain Cyprus Gibraltar Manila Mauritius Mumbai Nairobi Reykjavik Riyadh Tallinn Tianjin

Key areas

The human capital factors summarise the availability of a skilled workforce, the flexibility of the labour market, the quality of the business education and the skill-set of the workforce, and quality of life. The business environment factors aggregate and value the regulation, tax rates, levels of corruption, economic freedom and how difficult in general it is to do business. To measure regulation an online questionnaire has been used. The financial sector development factors assess the volume and value of trading in capital markets and other financial markets, the cluster effect of the number of different financial service companies at the location, and employment and economic output indicators. The infrastructure factors account for the price and availability of office space at the location, as well as public transport. Reputation and General considers more subjective aspects such as innovation, brand appeal, cultural diversity and competitive positioning.

Industry sectors

The index provides sub-rankings in the main areas of financial services – banking, investment management, insurance, professional services, government and regulation.

References

^ https://www.longfinance.net/publications/long-finance-reports/the-global-financial-centres-index-20/
^ See, for example, Yoshio Okubo, Vice Chairman, Japan Securities Dealers Association (October 2014). "Comparison of Global Financial Center". Harvard Law School, Program on International Financial Systems, Japan-U.S. Symposium. Retrieved 30 May 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ "New York Strips London of Mantle as World's Top Financial Center". Bloomberg L.P. 17 March 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
^ "New York and London vie for crown of world's top financial centre". The Financial Times (subscription required). 1 October 2014. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
^ "Seoul's Rise as a Global Financial Center". The Korea Society. 21 September 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
^ ^a ^b "The Global Financial Centres Index 25" (PDF). Long Finance. March 2019. Retrieved 21 April 2019.

[1] ttps://www.longfinance.net/publications/long-finance-reports/the-global-financial-centres-index-20/

[2] See, for example, Yoshio Okubo, Vice Chairman, Japan Securities Dealers Association (October 2014). "Comparison of Global Financial Center". Harvard Law School, Program on International Financial Systems, Japan-U.S. Symposium. Retrieved 30 May 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[3] "New York Strips London of Mantle as World's Top Financial Center". Bloomberg L.P. 17 March 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2015.

[FT20150524-4] "New York and London vie for crown of world's top financial centre". The Financial Times (subscription required). 1 October 2014. Retrieved 24 May 2015.

[5] "Seoul's Rise as a Global Financial Center". The Korea Society. 21 September 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2015.

[GFCI-6] "The Global Financial Centres Index 25" (PDF). Long Finance. March 2019. Retrieved 21 April 2019.

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