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]^[2] and is widely quoted as a top source for ranking financial centres.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

GFCI31 (2022)

The thirty-first edition of the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 31) was published on 24 March 2022. GFCI 31 provides evaluations of future competitiveness and rankings for 119 financial centres around the world. Rankings are based on surveys and 150 factors, with quantitative measures from the World Bank, The Economist Intelligence Unit, the OECD and United Nations.^[7]^[2] The 2022 report ranks New York at the top position followed by London and Hong Kong.^[8]

Rank	Change	Centre	Rating	Change
1		New York City	759	3
2		London	726	14
3		Hong Kong	715	1
4	2	Shanghai	714	1
5	2	Los Angeles	713	1
6	2	Singapore	712	3
7	2	San Francisco	711	3
8		Beijing	710	1
9		Tokyo	708	2
10	6	Shenzhen	707	8
11	1	Paris	706	1
12	1	Seoul	705	3
13	2	Chicago	704
14	2	Boston	703
15		Washington, D.C.	702	2
16	2	Frankfurt	694	7
17	1	Dubai	691	3
18	6	Madrid	690	3
19	2	Amsterdam	687	11
20	1	Zürich	686	4
21	1	Edinburgh	684	5
22	3	Toronto	683	10
23	2	Sydney	682	4
24	8	Guangzhou	681	4
25	5	Geneva	678	14
26		Stockholm	677	8
27	4	Luxembourg	676	12
28	3	Munich	675	3
29	2	Montreal	674	8
30	3	Busan	673	2
31	5	Abu Dhabi	672
32	3	Melbourne	671	9
33	5	Vancouver	668	13
34	12	Osaka	667	12
35	1	Copenhagen	666	8
36	4	Brussels	665	1
37		Chengdu	664	6
38		Qingdao	663	5
39	3	Oslo	662	1
40	5	Milan	661	5
41	11	Hamburg	660	19
42	18	Berlin	659	43
43	2	Dublin	655	10
44	3	Rome	652	2
45	10	Wellington	650	23
46	2	Vienna	647	12
47	4	Calgary	646	9
48		Kuala Lumpur	645	4
49	6	Helsinki	643	19
50	4	Mumbai	642	15
51	1	Moscow	641	3
52	13	Glasgow	640	32
53	1	Lisbon	633	3
54	1	Casablanca	632	4
55	7	Cape Town	629	15
56	8	Johannesburg	627	18
57	8	Tel Aviv	626	19
58	3	New Delhi	623	2
59	3	Warsaw	622	2
60	1	Mexico City	620	3

Rank	Change	Centre	Rating	Change
61	3	Bangkok	617	4
62	23	Stuttgart	613	54
63	NR	Atlanta	612	NR
64	3	Istanbul	611	4
65	3	Doha	606	6
66	1	Taipei	605	1
67	10	Jersey (CD)	604	18
68	5	Prague	602	9
69	3	Jakarta	600	7
70	1	Rio de Janeiro	599	4
71	5	GIFT City-Gujarat	590	22
72	NR	Lugano	589	NR
73	13	São Paulo	588	32
74	1	Nur-Sultan	576	7
75	8	Almaty	574	15
76	4	Cayman Islands (BOT)	572	9
77		Cyprus	571	5
78	10	Athens	569	15
79	2	Santiago	568	7
80	2	Monaco	567	2
81	22	Bogotá	566	31
82		Guernsey (CD)	565	5
83	13	San Diego	564	24
84	13	Bahrain	563	15
85	13	Liechtenstein	562	15
86	15	Riyadh	561	23
87	14	Mauritius	560	15
88	5	Isle of Man (CD)	559	10
89	10	Bratislava	558	6
90	5	Malta	557
91	2	Budapest	556	3
92	5	British Virgin Islands (BOT)	554	1
93	18	Hangzhou	553	64
94	19	Dalian	552	82
95	4	Bahamas	551	11
96	4	Bermuda (BOT)	550
97	13	Saint Petersburg	549	47
98	14	Sofia	548	10
99	5	Kigali	547	1
100	5	Manila	546	1
101	3	Nairobi	545	4
102	NR	Ho Chi Minh City	544	NR
103	1	Lagos	543	7
104	30	Tallinn	542	28
105	7	Tianjin	541	61
106	6	Trinidad and Tobago	539
107	7	Nanjing	533	71
108	1	Gibraltar (BOT)	526	2
109	3	Reykjavik	524	4
110	13	Buenos Aires	523	22
111	20	Vilnius	522	29
112	16	Riga	521	25
113	23	Barbados	520	32
114	9	Baku	519	12
115	11	Panama	518	14
116	8	Kuwait City	517	6
117	2	Xi'an	516	65
118	9	Tehran	500	11
119	3	Wuhan	448	48

N.B. Atlanta, Lugano and Ho Chi Minh City are the latest new entries, having not been included in the GFCI 30 ranking.

GFCI30 (2021)

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 September 24, 2021, the top centres worldwide are:^[9]

Rank	Change	Centre	Rating	Change
1		New York City	762	2
2		London	740	3
3	1	Hong Kong	716	25
4	1	Singapore	715	25
5	7	San Francisco	714	4
6	3	Shanghai	713	29
7	6	Los Angeles	712	4
8	2	Beijing	711	26
9	2	Tokyo	706	30
10	15	Paris	705	6
11	4	Chicago	704	10
12	12	Boston	703
13	3	Seoul	702	11
14	5	Frankfurt	701	26
15	1	Washington, D.C.	700	15
16	8	Shenzhen	699	32
17	11	Amsterdam	698	3
18	1	Dubai	694	16
19	10	Toronto	693	1
20		Geneva	692	17
21	11	Zürich	690	30
22	1	Edinburgh	689	19
23	6	Luxembourg	688	24
24	9	Madrid	687	4
25	7	Sydney	686	25
26	5	Stockholm	685	3
27		Montreal	682	14
28	17	Vancouver	681	38
29	6	Melbourne	680	25
30	13	Hamburg	679	15
31	18	Munich	678	31
32	10	Guangzhou	677	29
33	3	Busan	675	2
34		Copenhagen	674	6
35	11	Wellington	673	13
36	2	Abu Dhabi	672	3
37	2	Chengdu	670	8
38	4	Qingdao	668	3
39	9	Stuttgart	667	22
40	3	Brussels	666	10
41	7	Dublin	665	15
42	28	Oslo	663	69
43	13	Helsinki	662	42
44	10	Vienna	659	30
45	19	Milan	656	42
46	14	Osaka	655	29
47	5	Rome	654	18
48	1	Kuala Lumpur	649	3
49	8	Tel Aviv	645	21
50	7	Moscow	638	23
51	20	Calgary	637	44
52	2	Lisbon	636	5
53		Casablanca	628	4
54	11	Mumbai	627	28
55	25	New Delhi	625	41
56	5	Warsaw	624	17
57	18	Jersey (CD)	622	51
58	1	Bangkok	621	11

Rank	Change	Centre	Rating	Change
59	10	Mexico City	617	22
60	15	Berlin	616	46
61	13	Istanbul	615	25
62	20	Cape Town	614	32
63	13	Prague	611	23
64	26	Johannesburg	609	37
65	16	Glasgow	608	25
66	27	Jakarta	607	40
67	27	Taipei	604	64
68	13	Doha	600	28
69	8	Rio de Janeiro	595	8
70	26	San Diego	588	75
71	3	Bahrain	578	18
72	21	Liechtenstein	577	61
73	16	Mauritius	575	2
74	13	Tallinn	570	5
75	3	Nur-Sultan	569	17
76	16	GIFT City-Gujarat	568
77	21	Cyprus	566	5
78	18	Monaco	565	44
79	13	Bratislava	564	34
80	8	Cayman Islands (BOT)	563	29
81	14	Santiago	561	36
82	7	Guernsey (CD)	560	29
83	18	Almaty	559	6
84	11	Sofia	558	7
85	22	Malta	557	46
86	18	São Paulo	556	14
87	29	British Virgin Islands (BOT)	555	59
88	15	Athens	554	9
89	4	Budapest	553	24
90	26	Barbados	552	48
91	29	Vilnius	551	55
92	8	Bermuda (BOT)	550	30
93	7	Isle of Man (CD)	549	27
94	NR	Kigali	548	NR
95	16	Manila	547	38
96	13	Riga	546	53
97	6	Buenos Aires	545	26
98	8	Nairobi	541	21
99	26	Bahamas	540	51
100	3	Trinidad and Tobago	539	24
101	4	Riyadh	538	3
102	NR	Lagos	536	NR
103	3	Bogotá	535	19
104	10	Panama	532	34
105	2	Baku	531	16
106	4	Reykjavik	528	21
107	8	Gibraltar (BOT)	524	35
108	25	Kuwait City	523	58
109	13	Tehran	511	53
110	22	Saint Petersburg	502	72
111	3	Hangzhou	489	12
112	2	Tianjin	480	12
113	2	Dalian	470	21
114	1	Nanjing	462	22
115	3	Xi'an	451	34
116	2	Wuhan	400	69

N.B. Kigali and Lagos are the latest new entries, having not been included in the GFCI 29 ranking.

Financial centre profiles

This report ranked 116 international financial centers into the following matrix, as of 24 September 2021:^[9]

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

Top 15 centres by area of competitiveness

This is run for five separate areas of competitiveness to assess how financial centres perform in each of the areas GFCI 25 (2021 March).^[9]

Level	Business environment	Human capital	Infrastructure	Financial sector development	Reputational and general
1	New York City	New York City	New York City	London	New York City
2	Singapore	London	London	New York City	London
3	London	Singapore	Shanghai	Singapore	Singapore
4	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	Shenzhen	Hong Kong
5	Beijing	Shanghai	Singapore	Hong Kong	Zürich
6	Shanghai	Tokyo	Tokyo	Shanghai	Shanghai
7	San Francisco	Beijing	Beijing	Zürich	Beijing
8	Tokyo	Paris	Amsterdam	Frankfurt	Tokyo
9	Chicago	Brussels	Zürich	Seoul	Edinburgh
10	Frankfurt	Luxembourg	Boston	Los Angeles	Glasgow
11	Edinburgh	Los Angeles	Frankfurt	Luxembourg	Zürich
12	Luxembourg	San Francisco	Edinburgh	San Francisco	Dublin
13	Amsterdam	Chicago	Geneva	Beijing	Seoul
14	Zürich	Shenzhen	Guangzhou	Geneva	Hamburg
15	Washington, D.C.	Frankfurt	Seoul	Edinburgh	Paris

Top 15 centres by industry sector

This creates separate sub-indices: banking, investment management, insurance, professional services, and government and regulatory sectors for GFCI 25 (2019 March) .^[1]

Level	Banking	Investment management	Insurance	Professional services	Government and regulatory sectors	Finance	FinTech	Trading
1	New York City	New York City	Shanghai	New York City	New York City	New York City	New York City	New York City
2	Shanghai	London	Singapore	London	London	Shanghai	Singapore	London
3	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	Beijing	Singapore	Zürich	Beijing	Shanghai	Singapore
4	London	Singapore	New York City	Hong Kong	Singapore	London	Hong Kong	Hong Kong
5	Beijing	Shanghai	Hong Kong	Shenzhen	Geneva	Luxembourg	London	Shanghai
6	Shenzhen	Beijing	London	Shanghai	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	Seoul	Beijing
7	Tokyo	Shenzhen	Luxembourg	Vancouver	Shanghai	Shenzhen	Beijing	Shenzhen
8	Singapore	Frankfurt	Shenzhen	Tokyo	Shenzhen	Tokyo	Tokyo	Zürich
9	Zürich	Luxembourg	Stockholm	Beijing	Tokyo	Edinburgh	Shenzhen	Frankfurt
10	Melbourne	Sydney	Frankfurt	Luxembourg	Seoul	GIFT City-Gujarat	San Francisco	Luxembourg
11	Paris	Zürich	Zürich	San Francisco	Luxembourg	Singapore	Amsterdam	Tokyo
12	Washington, D.C.	San Francisco	Seoul	Seoul	Tehran	Frankfurt	Los Angeles	Geneva
13	Sydney	Boston	Tokyo	Zürich	Dubai	Milan	Boston	Chicago
14	Guangzhou	Tokyo	Paris	Frankfurt	Beijing	Paris	Chicago	Los Angeles
15	Vienna	Dubai	Boston	Geneva	Wellington	Brussels	Luxembourg	San Francisco

Key areas

The human capital factors summarize 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

^ ^a ^b "The Global Financial Centres Index 20".
^ ^a ^b Jones, Huw (24 March 2022). "New York widens lead over London in top finance centres index". Reuters. Retrieved 10 September 2022. Rankings are based on surveys and 150 factors, with quantitative measures from the World Bank, The Economist Intelligence Unit, the OECD and United Nations.
^ 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.
^ https://www.longfinance.net/programmes/financial-centre-futures/global-financial-centres-index/gfci-publications/global-financial-centres-index-31/ 24 March 2022
^ Wee, Denise. "Hong Kong Holds Third Spot in World's Financial Centers Ranking". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 10 September 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c "The Global Financial Centres Index 30". Long Finance. September 2021. Retrieved 24 September 2021.

External links

"Launch Of The Global Financial Centres Index 32" on YouTube

[:0-1] "The Global Financial Centres Index 20".

[factors_calculation-2] Jones, Huw (24 March 2022). "New York widens lead over London in top finance centres index". Reuters. Retrieved 10 September 2022. Rankings are based on surveys and 150 factors, with quantitative measures from the World Bank, The Economist Intelligence Unit, the OECD and United Nations.

[3] 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)

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

[FT20150524-5] "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.

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

[7] ttps://www.longfinance.net/programmes/financial-centre-futures/global-financial-centres-index/gfci-publications/global-financial-centres-index-31/ 24 March 2022

[ranks_top_3-8] Wee, Denise. "Hong Kong Holds Third Spot in World's Financial Centers Ranking". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 10 September 2022.

[GFCI-9] "The Global Financial Centres Index 30". Long Finance. September 2021. Retrieved 24 September 2021.

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