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 26, 2020, the top centres worldwide are:[6]

Rank Change Centre Rating Change 1 New York City 769 21 2 London 742 31 3 3 Tokyo 741 16 4 1 Shanghai 740 21 5 1  Singapore 738 24 6 3  Hong Kong 737 34 7 Beijing 734 14 8 4 San Francisco 732 4 9 17 Geneva 729 23 10 3 Los Angeles 723 12 11 2 Shenzhen 722 17 12 4 Dubai 721 19 13 2 Frankfurt 720 13 14 Zurich 719 15 15 2 Paris 718 10 16 Chicago 717 15 17 12 Edinburgh 716 15 18 7 Luxembourg 715 7 19 4 Guangzhou 714 3 20 10 Sydney 713 25 21 2 Melbourne 712 8 22 2 Vancouver 711 1 23 12 Toronto 710 27 24 4 Washington, D.C. 709 7 25 7 Boston 708 19 26 6 Montreal 704 12 27 10 Amsterdam 703 28 28 18 Stockholm 702 43 29 20 Hamburg 699 49 30 8 Dublin 698 24 31 Wellington 697 4 32 10 Stuttgart 696 33 33 3 Seoul 694 17 34 22 Brussels 691 53 35 32 Copenhagen 689 66 36 14 Tel Aviv 688 25 37 15 Munich 687 42 38 16 Vienna 685 45 39 7 Abu Dhabi 682 8 40 17 Calgary 681 44 41 20 Casablanca 680 34 42 6 Milan 679 24 43 1 Madrid 678 17 44 1 Kuala Lumpur 677 17 45 27 Mumbai 672 63 46 12 Prague 671 35 47 17  Cayman Islands (BOT) 670 29 48 9 Doha 669 3 49 10  Jersey (CD) 666 31 50 14 Warsaw 665 39 51 8 Busan 664 2 52 24 Tallinn 663 58 53 16 Rome 662 48 54 7  Liechtenstein 661 30

Rank Change Centre Rating Change 55 43 Almaty 660 112 56 9  Bahrain 659 1 57 37 Baku 658 74 58 8 Bangkok 657 8 59 32 Osaka 656 49 60 15  British Virgin Islands (BOT) 655 49 61 1 Oslo 654 21 62 22 Sofia 653 59 63 28  Bermuda (BOT) 652 28 64 24  Mauritius 651 20 65 5 Glasgow 650 37 66 NR Vilnius 649 NR 67 16  Cyprus 648 53 68 Helsinki 647 25 69 21 New Delhi 646 58 70 15 Riga 645 52 71 Moscow 644 44 72 21 Nur-Sultan 643 5 73 19  Guernsey (CD) 642 56 74 1 Chengdu 641 33 75 41 Taipei 640 47 76 21 Lisbon 639 77 12  Isle of Man (CD) 638 49 78 16 Mexico City 637 7 79 26 Istanbul 636 5 80 17 Cape Town 635 6 81 NR San Diego 634 NR 82 16 GIFT City-Gujarat 633 9 83 1 São Paulo 632 36 84 6 Budapest 628 25 85 4 Johannesburg 627 27 86 45  Monaco 626 43 87 1 Nairobi 625 35 88 8 Riyadh 624 60 89 2 Rio de Janeiro 622 31 90 13  Gibraltar (BOT) 621 17 91 26 Kuwait City 620 5 92 1 Reykjavik 618 33 93 2 Jakarta 617 30 94 8  Panama 616 24 95 NR Tehran 615 NR 96 4 Athens 614 75 97 18 Saint Petersburg 613 11 98 6 Hangzhou 612 153 99 66 Qingdao 610 78 100 2 Tianjin 609 81 101 2 Nanjing 608 101 102 1 Dalian 607 78 103 6 Manila 606 57 104 5 Santiago 603 63 105 31  Bahamas 599 8 106 26 Buenos Aires 592 9 107 12  Malta 588 11 108 NR  Barbados 583 NR

N.B. Vilnius, San Diego, Tehran, and Barbados are the latest new entries, having not been included in the GFCI 26 ranking.

Financial centre profiles

This report ranked 108 international financial centers into the following matrix, as of 26 March 2020:[6]

Level	Broad & deep Global Leaders	Relatively broad Global Diversified	Relatively deep Global Specialists	Emerging Global Contenders
Global	Beijing Chicago Dubai  Hong Kong London Los Angeles New York City Shanghai  Singapore Tokyo Washington, D.C. Zürich	Amsterdam Boston Dublin Frankfurt Moscow Paris Seoul	Chengdu Guangzhou Qingdao	Abu Dhabi Dalian Shenzhen
Level	Broad & deep Established International	Relatively broad International Diversified	Relatively deep International Specialists	Emerging International Contenders
International	Athens Edinburgh Hamburg Kuala Lumpur Lisbon Melbourne Montreal Munich San Francisco Stuttgart Tel Aviv	Bangkok Brussels Copenhagen Geneva Istanbul Madrid Milan Rome Stockholm Sydney Toronto Vienna	Almaty  Bahamas Buenos Aires Busan Casablanca  Cayman Islands Doha Nanjing Taipei Tallinn Vilnius	Bermuda  British Virgin Islands  Guernsey GIFT City-Gujarat Hangzhou  Jersey Luxembourg Mumbai New Delhi Nur-Sultan Tianjin
Level	Broad & deep Established Players	Relatively broad Local Diversified	Relatively deep Local Specialists	Emerging Evolving Centres
Local	Budapest Calgary Glasgow Helsinki Osaka Oslo Prague San Diego Santiago Vancouver Wellington	Johannesburg Mexico City São Paulo Warsaw	Bahrain Baku  Barbados  Cyprus  Gibraltar Jakarta Kuwait City Manila  Monaco Nairobi  Panama Reykjavik Riga Riyadh Saint Petersburg Sofia Tehran	Cape Town  Isle of Man  Liechtenstein  Malta  Mauritius 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.[6]

Level	Business Environment	Human Capital	Infrastructure	Financial Sector Development	Reputational and General
1	New York City	New York City	New York City	New York City	New York City
2	London	London	London	London	London
3	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	Singapore	Singapore	Singapore
4	Singapore	Luxembourg	Tokyo	Zürich	Hong Kong
5	Frankfurt	Singapore	Hong Kong	Frankfurt	Oslo
6	Zürich	Shanghai	Geneva	Hong Kong	Tokyo
7	Chicago	Beijing	Zürich	Geneva	Paris
8	Geneva	Paris	Stockholm	Amsterdam	Dublin
9	Toronto	Chicago	Shanghai	Shanghai	Shanghai
10	Montréal	Dubai	San Francisco	Tokyo	Beijing
11	Oslo	Tokyo	Beijing	San Francisco	Zürich
12	Edinburgh	Brussels	Dubai	Paris	Amsterdam
13	Copenhagen	San Francisco	Paris	Dubai	Frankfurt
14	Amsterdam	Frankfurt	Sydney	Luxembourg	Edinburgh
15	Dublin	Los Angeles	Vancouver	Copenhagen	Sydney

Top 15 Centres by Industry Sector

This creates separate sub-indices: Banking, Investment Management, Insurance, Professional Services, and Government & Regulatory sectors.[1]

Level	Banking	Investment Management	Insurance	Professional Services	Government and Regulatory Sectors
1	New York City	New York City	Luxembourg	New York City	New York City
2	Shanghai	Shanghai	New York City	London	London
3	London	Singapore	London	Hong Kong	Luxembourg
4	Hong Kong	London	Singapore	Dubai	Hong Kong
5	Tokyo	Hong Kong	Zürich	Singapore	Singapore
6	Singapore	Beijing	Geneva	Shanghai	Shanghai
7	Beijing	Frankfurt	Frankfurt	Toronto	Tokyo
8	San Francisco	Toronto	Hong Kong	Geneva	Zürich
9	Geneva	San Francisco	Abu Dhabi	Frankfurt	Frankfurt
10	Shenzhen	Boston	Shanghai	Beijing	Los Angeles
11	Sydney	Dubai	Los Angeles	Zürich	Tel Aviv
12	Melbourne	Tokyo	Toronto	Tokyo	Beijing
13	Frankfurt	Luxembourg	Chicago	Tel Aviv	San Francisco
14	Paris	Shenzhen	Beijing	Sydney	Vilnius
15	Guangzhou	Zürich	Dubai	San Francisco	Geneva

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

1. https://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.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.
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.
6. "The Global Financial Centres Index 27" (PDF). Long Finance. March 2020. Retrieved 5 April 2020.