The Strategist

London Won 'The Financial Capital' Status Back



09/23/2015 - 15:43



London regained the status of the world's largest financial center, which he lost to New York in early 2014, according to a review of financial consulting firm Z/Yen Group, which calculates the half-yearly Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI).



Harshil Shah via flickr
Harshil Shah via flickr
In the spring of 2015, the difference between the cities has shrunk to 1 point in favor of the New York. Now, London is ahead of the US rival once again, with significant margin of 12 points, including due to the positive resolution of the uncertainty around taxation in the UK.

However, the major problem for London is the issue of immigration.
- It is impossible to be an international financial center without international experts", - said chairman of the Z/Yen Michael Mainelli.

Riyadh showed a negative mark among the financial centers in the oil-producing countries: the Saudi capital collapsed by 43 lines, up to 57th place.

Places from third to fifth have not been changed, they are still occupied in descending order by Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo. The top ten also includes Seoul, Zurich, Toronto, San Francisco and Washington.

In Europe, Frankfurt rose to five lines, reaching 14th place, while Luxembourg fell by two positions - up to 19th. Warsaw suddenly popped up, jumping by 26 places, to 38th, meanwhile Dublin moved from 52 th to 46th place.

In Asia, significantly improved the position of Osaka (11), in Latin America - Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (12).

Shanghai dropped from 16th to 21th place, Beijing remained in 29th place, Paris - on the 29th.

Tallinn, Athens and Reykjavik are completing the list - all the three cities lost two lines since the spring.

Global Financial Centres Index was first published in 2007 and is updated every six months (the current issue was the eighteenth in a row). It is based on a survey of more than 3 thousand professionals and takes into account the five groups of indicators (of 105 individual factors): business environment, finance, infrastructure, human capital and reputation.

In total, Z/Yen reviewed 98 cities, but only 84 of them have accumulated enough data to get into the rating. Among the outsiders are Guangzhou, Riga and New Delhi.