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 top 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 17, 2021, the top centres worldwide are:^[6]

Rank	Change	Centre	Rating	Change
1		New York City	764	6
2		London	743	23
3		Shanghai	742	6
4	1	Hong Kong	741	2
5	1	Singapore	740	2
6	1	Beijing	737	4
7	3	Tokyo	736	11
8	1	Shenzhen	731	1
9	7	Frankfurt	727	12
10		Zurich	720	4
11	13	Vancouver	719	21
12	4	San Francisco	718	20
13	2	Los Angeles	716	4
14	5	Washington, D.C.	715	3
15	5	Chicago	714	3
16	9	Seoul	713	18
17	5	Luxembourg	712	7
18	14	Sydney	711	29
19	2	Dubai	710	4
20	6	Geneva	709	8
21	8	Edinburgh	708	10
22	1	Guangzhou	706	4
23	4	Melbourne	705	12
24	9	Boston	703	13
25	7	Paris	699	14
26	12	Milan	698	28
27	1	Montreal	696	2
28	6	Amsterdam	695	6
29	2	Toronto	694	10
30	7	Stuttgart	689	17
31	8	Stockholm	688	12
32	7	Osaka	684	19
33	5	Madrid	683	9
34	2	Copenhagen	680	6
35	8	Chengdu	678	19
36	4	Busan	677	13
37	7	Brussels	676	10
38	5	Abu Dhabi	675	6
39	16	Jersey (CD)	673	36
40	2	Taipei	668	6
41	4	Tel Aviv	666	10
42	5	Qingdao	665	11
43	14	Hamburg	664	26
44	16	San Diego	663	58
45	NR	Berlin	662	NR
46	2	Wellington	660	3
47	6	Kuala Lumpur	652	11
48	14	Dublin	650	29
49	1	Munich	647	6
50	9	Lisbon	641	33
51	17	Liechtenstein	638	47
52	1	Rome	636	7
53	7	Casablanca	632	23
54		Vienna	629	11
55	1	Doha	628	1
56	9	Helsinki	620	26
57	5	Moscow	615	15

Rank	Change	Centre	Rating	Change
58	14	British Virgin Islands (BOT)	614	27
59	1	Bangkok	610	7
60	15	Monaco	609	29
61	4	Warsaw	607	11
62	14	Vilnius	606	28
63	10	Malta	603	17
64	22	Barbados	600	41
65	30	Mumbai	599	79
66	21	Bratislava	598	46
67	26	Santiago	597	51
68	15	Bahrain	596	34
69	1	Mexico City	595	6
70	20	Oslo	594	57
71	20	Calgary	593	56
72	6	Cayman Islands (BOT)	592	17
73	4	Bahamas	591	1
74	10	Istanbul	590	5
75	4	Guernsey (CD)	589	15
76	10	Prague	588	5
77	8	Rio de Janeiro	587	27
78	4	Nur-Sultan	586	1
79	27	Manila	585	94
80	31	New Delhi	584	68
81	29	Glasgow	583	65
82	15	Cape Town	582	10
83	20	Kuwait City	581	57
84	23	Bermuda (BOT)	580	21
85	16	Budapest	577	46
86	9	Isle of Man (CD)	576	1
87	1	Tallinn	575	24
88	16	Saint Petersburg	574	51
89	26	Mauritius	573	25
90		Johannesburg	572	23
91	3	Buenos Aires	571	28
92	10	GIFT City-Gujarat	568	5
93	12	Jakarta	567	1
94	3	Panama	566	18
95		Sofia	565	25
96	6	Tehran	564	36
97	NR	Trinidad and Tobago	563	NR
98	27	Cyprus	561	27
99	15	Gibraltar (BOT)	559	2
100	NR	Bogotá	554	NR
101	2	Almaty	553	17
102	2	Reykjavik	549	14
103	11	Athens	545	2
104	24	São Paulo	542	27
105	2	Riyadh	541	55
106	10	Nairobi	520	19
107	9	Baku	515	22
108	1	Hangzhou	501	38
109	12	Riga	493	45
110	2	Tianjin	492	15
111	1	Dalian	491	36
112	7	Xi'an	485	21
113	24	Nanjing	484	66
114	3	Wuhan	469	49

N.B. Berlin, Trinidad & Tobago, and Bogotá are the latest new entries, having not been included in the GFCI 28 ranking.

Financial centre profiles[]

This report ranked 114 international financial centers into the following matrix, as of 17 March 2021:^[6]

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

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).^[6]

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 & 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[]

^ Jump up to: ^a ^b "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.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.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c "The Global Financial Centres Index 29" (PDF). Long Finance. March 2021. Retrieved 18 March 2021.

External links[]

[:0-1] Jump up to: ^a ^b "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.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] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c "The Global Financial Centres Index 29" (PDF). Long Finance. March 2021. Retrieved 18 March 2021.

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