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A financial centre (financial center in American English) or financial hub is a location with a significant concentration of participants in banking asset management, insurance, and financial markets, with venues and supporting services for these activities to take place. [3] [4] Participants can include financial intermediaries (such as banks and brokers), institutional investors (such as investment managers, pension funds, insurers, and hedge funds), and issuers (such as companies and governments). Trading activity can take place on venues such as exchanges and involve clearing houses, although many transactions take place over-the-counter (OTC), directly between participants. Financial centres usually host companies that offer a wide range of financial services, for example relating to mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, or corporate actions; or which participate in other areas of finance, such as private equity, hedge funds, and reinsurance. Ancillary financial services include rating agencies, as well as provision of related professional services, particularly legal advice and accounting services. [5]
As of the 2024 edition of the Global Financial Centres Index, New York City, London and Hong Kong ranked top 3 globally, while other well known financial centres include Singapore, Shanghai, Frankfurt and Tokyo, amongst others.
In April 2000, the Financial Stability Forum ("FSF"), [a] concerned about OFCs on global financial stability produced a report listing 42 OFCs. [6] In June 2000, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a working paper on OFCs, but which also proposed a taxonomy on classifying the various types of global financial centres, which they listed as follows (with the description and examples they noted as typical of each category, also noted): [7]
The IMF noted that the three categories were not mutually exclusive and that various locations could fall under the definition of an OFC and an RFC, in particular (e.g. Singapore and Hong Kong were cited). [7]
International Financial Centres, and many Regional Financial Centres, are full–service financial centres with direct access to large capital pools from banks, insurance companies, investment funds, and listed capital markets, and are major global cities. Offshore Financial Centres, and also some Regional Financial Centres, tend to specialise in tax-driven services, such as corporate tax planning tools, tax–neutral vehicles, [b] and shadow banking/securitisation, and can include smaller locations (e.g. Luxembourg), or city-states (e.g. Singapore). Since 2010, academics consider Offshore Financial Centres synonymous with tax havens. [c]
The IMF noted that OFCs could be set up for legitimate purposes (listing various reasons), but also for what the IMF called dubious purposes, citing tax evasion and money–laundering. In 2007, the IMF produced the following definition of an OFC: a country or jurisdiction that provides financial services to nonresidents on a scale that is incommensurate with the size and the financing of its domestic economy. [11] The FSF annual reports on global shadow banking use the IMF definition to track the OFCs with the largest financial centres relative to their domestic economies. [12]
Progress from 2000 onwards from IMF–OECD–FATF initiatives on common standards, regulatory compliance, and banking transparency, has reduced the regulatory attraction of OFCs over IFCs and RFCs. Since 2010, academics considered the services of OFCs to be synonymous with tax havens, and use the term OFC and tax haven interchangeably (e.g. the academic lists of tax havens include all the FSF–IMF OFCs). [9] [10]
In July 2017, a study by the University of Amsterdam's CORPNET group, broke down the definition of an OFC into two subgroups, Conduit and Sink OFCs: [13]
Sink OFCs rely on Conduit OFCs to re–route funds from high–tax locations using base erosion and profit shifting ("BEPS") tax planning tools, which are encoded, and accepted, in the Conduit OFC's extensive networks of global bilateral tax treaties. Because Sink OFCs are more closely associated with traditional tax havens, they tend to have more limited treaty networks and access to global higher–tax locations.
Prior to the 1960s, there was little data available to rank financial centres. [14] : 1 In recent years many rankings have been developed and published. Two of the most relevant are the Global Financial Centres Index and the Xinhua–Dow Jones International Financial Centres Development Index. [15]
The Global Financial Centres Index ("GFCI") is compiled semi-annually by the London-based think tank Z/Yen in conjunction with the Shenzhen-based think tank China Development Institute. [16] The 36th edition of the GFCI was published in September 2024. [17]
Rank | Centre | Rating | Change in rank | Change in rating |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | New York City | 763 | 1 | |
2 | London | 750 | 3 | |
3 | Hong Kong | 749 | 1 | 8 |
4 | Singapore | 747 | 1 | 5 |
5 | San Francisco | 742 | 2 | |
6 | Chicago | 740 | 3 | 4 |
7 | Los Angeles | 739 | 1 | 2 |
8 | Shanghai | 738 | 2 | 1 |
9 | Shenzhen | 732 | 2 | 2 |
10 | Frankfurt | 730 | 3 | 2 |
11 | Seoul | 729 | 1 | 6 |
12 | Washington, D.C. | 728 | 5 | |
13 | Geneva | 726 | 6 | 12 |
14 | Dublin | 725 | 11 | 6 |
15 | Paris | 724 | 1 | 7 |
16 | Dubai | 723 | 4 | 1 |
17 | Zürich | 722 | 1 | 7 |
18 | Beijing | 721 | 3 | 9 |
19 | Luxembourg | 720 | 2 | 8 |
20 | Tokyo | 719 | 1 | 6 |
Old finance centres such as Amsterdam, London, Paris, and New York have long histories. [19] [20] Today there is a diverse range of financial centres worldwide. [21] While New York and London often stand out as the leading global financial centres, [22] [23] other established financial centres provide significant competition and several newer financial centres are developing. [24] Despite this proliferation of financial centres, academics have discussed evidence showing increasing concentration of financial activity in the largest national and international financial centres in the 21st century. [25] : 24–34 Others have discussed the ongoing dominance of New York and London, and the role linkages between these two financial centres played in the financial crisis of 2007–08. [26]
Comparisons of financial centres focus on their history, role and significance in serving national, regional and international financial activity. Each centre's offering includes differing legal, tax and regulatory environments. [27] One journalist suggested three factors for success as a financial city: "a pool of capital to lend or invest; a decent legal and taxation framework; and high-quality human resources". [28]
New York, London, and Tokyo are in every list of major IFCs. Some of the major RFCs (see below), such as Paris, Frankfurt, Chicago, and Shanghai appear as IFCs in some lists.
These centres appear in all FSF–IMF lists of OFCs and, bar the Caribbean OFCs of the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, and Bermuda, represent all the major OFCs. Some also appear as RFCs in various lists, particularly Hong Kong, and Singapore. They also appear on most lists of major tax havens, and on lists of the largest Conduit and Sink OFCs in the world.
In some lists, RFCs such as Paris, Frankfurt, Chicago, and Shanghai appear as IFCs, however, they do not appear in all lists. They are certainly major RFCs.
Primitive financial centres started in the 11th century in the Kingdom of England at the annual fair of St. Giles and in the Kingdom of Germany at the Frankfurt autumn fair, then developed in medieval France during the Champaign Fairs. [106] [84]
The first real international financial centre was the city state of Venice which slowly emerged from the 9th century to its peak in the 14th century. [106] Tradable bonds as a commonly used type of security, were invented by the Italian city-states (such as Venice and Genoa) of the late medieval and early Renaissance periods while Florence can be said to be the birthplace of double-entry bookkeeping from the publication and proliferation of the work of Luca Pacioli.
In the sixteenth century, the overall economic supremacy of the Italian city-states gradually waned, and the centre of financial activities in Europe shifted to the Low Countries, first to Bruges, and later to Antwerp and Amsterdam which acted as Entrepôt cities. They also became important centres of financial innovation, capital accumulation and investment.[ citation needed ] By the early 1800s, London officially replaced Amsterdam as the world's leading financial centre.
London and Paris were the world's only prominent financial centres throughout most of the 19th century. [14] : 1 After 1870, Berlin and New York grew to become major financial centres mainly serving their national economies. An array of smaller international financial centres found market niches, such as Amsterdam, Brussels, Zurich, and Geneva. London was the leading international financial centre in the four decades before World War I. [14] : 74–75 [19] : 12–15 Since then, New York and London have developed leading positions in different activities and some non-Western financial centres have grown in prominence, notably Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai.
London has been a leading international financial centre since the 19th century , acting as a centre of lending and investment around the world. [14] : 74–75 [107] : 149 English contract law was adopted widely for international finance , with legal services provided in London. [108] Financial institutions located there provided services internationally such as Lloyd's of London (founded 1686) for insurance and the Baltic Exchange (founded 1744) for shipping. [109] During the 20th century London played an important role in the development of new financial products such as the Eurodollar and Eurobonds in the 1960s, international asset management and international equities trading in the 1980s, and derivatives in the 1990s. [19] : 13 [5] : 6, 12–13, 88–9 [42]
London continues to maintain a leading position as a financial centre in the 21st century, and maintains the largest trade surplus in financial services around the world. [110] [111] [112] However, like New York, it faces new competitors including fast-rising eastern financial centres such as Hong Kong and Shanghai. London is the largest centre for derivatives markets , [113] foreign exchange markets , [114] money markets , [115] issuance of international debt securities , [116] international insurance , [117] trading in gold, silver and base metals through the London bullion market and London Metal Exchange , [118] and international bank lending . [5] : 2 [42] [119] London has the second largest concentration of hedge funds (847 according to HedgeLists.com). London benefits from its position between the Asia and U.S. time zones, [120] and benefited from its location within the European Union , [54] : 1 although this ended on 31 January 2020 when the United Kingdom left the European Union following the Brexit referendum of 2016. As well as the London Stock Exchange , the Bank of England , the second oldest central bank, is in London, although the European Banking Authority moved to Paris after Brexit. [121] [122]
Since the middle of the 20th century, New York City, represented by Wall Street in Manhattan's Financial District , has been described as a leading financial centre. [14] : 1 [25] : 25 [26] : 4–5 Over the past few decades, with the rise of a multipolar world with new regional powers and global capitalism , numerous financial centres have challenged Wall Street, particularly London and several in Asia, which some analysts believe will be the focus of new worldwide growth. [30] : 39–49 [123] One source described New York as extending its lead as the world's centre of finance in September 2018; according to Reuters , the think-tank New Financial concluded the "raw" value of domestic and international financial activity like managing assets and issuing equity underscored the position of New York as the world's leading financial centre. [32]
New York City remains the largest centre for trading in public equity and debt capital markets , driven in part by the size and financial development of the U.S. economy . [30] : 31–32 [124] The NYSE and NASDAQ are the two largest stock exchanges in the world. [34] New York also leads in hedge fund management; private equity ; and the monetary volume of mergers and acquisitions . Several investment banks and investment managers headquartered in New York City are important participants in other financial centres. [30] : 34–35 The New York Federal Reserve Bank , the largest within the Federal Reserve System , regulates financial institutions and implements U.S. monetary policy , [35] [125] which in turn influences the world's economy. [126] [127] The three major global credit rating agencies – Standard and Poor's , Moody's Ratings , and Fitch Ratings – are headquartered or co–headquartered in New York City, with Fitch being co–headquartered in London.
In Asia, Tokyo emerged as a major financial centre in the 1980s as the Japanese economy became one of the largest in the world. [14] : 1 Hong Kong and Singapore developed soon after leveraging their links with London and Britain. [26] : 10–11 [76] In the 21st century, other centres have grown including Toronto, Sydney, Seoul, Shanghai and Astana. Astana International Financial Centre has become the fastest growing financial hub in Central Asia. Dubai has become a centre for finance in the Middle East, including for Islamic finance. The rapid rise of India has enabled Mumbai to become an emerging financial centre. India is also making an International Financial Centre GIFT City from scratch. GIFT city is now functional and has already won the crown of fastest emerging International Finance Centre of South Asia. Linked to the rise of these new IFCs, has seen the rise of "partner OFCs" (offshore tax-havens to which funds are routed), such as Taiwan (a major Sink OFC for Asia, and 7th largest global Sink OFC), Mauritius (a major Sink OFC for South Asia, especially India, and Africa, and the 9th largest global Sink OFC).
The private nationwide financial system in China was first developed by the Shanxi merchants, with the creation of so-called "draft banks". The first draft bank Rishengchang was created in 1823 in Pingyao. Some large draft banks had branches in Russia, Mongolia and Japan to facilitate the international trade. Throughout the nineteenth century, the central Shanxi region became the de facto financial centres of Qing China. With the fall of Qing Dynasty, the financial centres gradually shifted to Shanghai, mainly due to its geographical location at the estuary of the Yangtze River and to the control of customs in China. After the establishment of People's Republic of China, the financial centres in China today are Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.
The economy of the Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory located in the western Caribbean Sea, is mainly fueled by the tourism sector and by the financial services sector, together representing 50–60 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). The Cayman Islands Investment Bureau, a government agency, has been established with the mandate of promoting investment and economic development in the territory. Because of the territory's strong economy and it being a popular banking destination for wealthy individuals and businesses, it is often dubbed the ‘financial capital’ of the Caribbean.
The economy of Gibraltar consists largely of the services sector. While part of the European Union until Brexit, the British overseas territory of Gibraltar has a separate legal jurisdiction from the United Kingdom and a different tax system. The role of the UK Ministry of Defence, which at one time was Gibraltar's main source of income, has declined, with today's economy mainly based on shipping, tourism, financial services, and the Internet.
The economy of Hong Kong is a highly developed free-market economy. It is characterised by low taxation, almost free port trade and a well-established international financial market. Its currency, called the Hong Kong dollar, is legally issued by three major international commercial banks, and is pegged to the US dollar. Interest rates are determined by the individual banks in Hong Kong to ensure that they are market driven. There is no officially recognised central banking system, although the Hong Kong Monetary Authority functions as a financial regulatory authority.
Corporate haven, corporate tax haven, or multinational tax haven is used to describe a jurisdiction that multinational corporations find attractive for establishing subsidiaries or incorporation of regional or main company headquarters, mostly due to favourable tax regimes, and/or favourable secrecy laws, and/or favourable regulatory regimes.
The global financial system is the worldwide framework of legal agreements, institutions, and both formal and informal economic action that together facilitate international flows of financial capital for purposes of investment and trade financing. Since emerging in the late 19th century during the first modern wave of economic globalization, its evolution is marked by the establishment of central banks, multilateral treaties, and intergovernmental organizations aimed at improving the transparency, regulation, and effectiveness of international markets. In the late 1800s, world migration and communication technology facilitated unprecedented growth in international trade and investment. At the onset of World War I, trade contracted as foreign exchange markets became paralyzed by money market illiquidity. Countries sought to defend against external shocks with protectionist policies and trade virtually halted by 1933, worsening the effects of the global Great Depression until a series of reciprocal trade agreements slowly reduced tariffs worldwide. Efforts to revamp the international monetary system after World War II improved exchange rate stability, fostering record growth in global finance.
HSBC Holdings plc is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with historical and business links to East Asia and a multinational footprint. It is the largest Europe-based bank by total assets, ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.919 trillion as of December 2023.
The Central Bank of Ireland is the Irish member of the Eurosystem and had been the monetary authority for Ireland from 1943 to 1998, issuing the Irish pound. It is also the country's main financial regulatory authority, and since 2014 has been Ireland's national competent authority within European Banking Supervision.
An offshore bank is a bank that is operated and regulated under international banking license, which usually prohibits the bank from establishing any business activities in the jurisdiction of establishment. Due to less regulation and transparency, accounts with offshore banks were often used to hide undeclared income. Since the 1980s, jurisdictions that provide financial services to nonresidents on a big scale can be referred to as offshore financial centres. OFCs often also levy little or no corporation tax and/or personal income and high direct taxes such as duty, making the cost of living high.
Financial services are economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of service sector activities, especially as concerns financial management and consumer finance.
The International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) is an area of central Dublin and part of the CBD established in the 1980s as an urban regeneration area and special economic zone (SEZ) on the derelict state-owned former port authority lands of the reclaimed North Wall and George's Dock areas of the Dublin Docklands. The term has become a metonym for the Irish financial services industry as well as being used as an address and still being classified as an SEZ.
The economy of London is dominated by service industries, particularly financial services and associated professional services, which have strong links with the economy in other parts of the United Kingdom (UK) and internationally. In addition to being the capital city of the United Kingdom, London is one of the world's leading financial centres for international business and commerce and is one of the "command centres" for the global economy.
A tax haven is a term, often used pejoratively, to describe a place with very low tax rates for non-domiciled investors, even if the official rates may be higher.
An offshore financial centre (OFC) is defined as a "country or jurisdiction that provides financial services to nonresidents on a scale that is incommensurate with the size and the financing of its domestic economy."
Financial services in Gibraltar refers to the services provided in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar by the finance industry: banks, investment banks, insurance companies, credit card companies, consumer finance companies, government-sponsored enterprises, and stock brokerages.
The Republic of Panama is one of the oldest and best-known tax havens in the Caribbean, as well as one of the most established in the region. Panama has had a reputation for tax avoidance since the early 20th century, and Panama has been cited repeatedly in recent years as a jurisdiction which does not cooperate with international tax transparency initiatives.
An Irish Section 110 special purpose vehicle (SPV) or section 110 company is an Irish tax resident company, which qualifies under Section 110 of the Irish Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (TCA) for a special tax regime that enables the SPV to attain "tax neutrality": i.e. the SPV pays no Irish taxes, VAT, or duties.
Conduit OFC and sink OFC is an empirical quantitative method of classifying corporate tax havens, offshore financial centres (OFCs) and tax havens.
Ireland has been labelled as a tax haven or corporate tax haven in multiple financial reports, an allegation which the state has rejected in response. Ireland is on all academic "tax haven lists", including the § Leaders in tax haven research, and tax NGOs. Ireland does not meet the 1998 OECD definition of a tax haven, but no OECD member, including Switzerland, ever met this definition; only Trinidad & Tobago met it in 2017. Similarly, no EU–28 country is amongst the 64 listed in the 2017 EU tax haven blacklist and greylist. In September 2016, Brazil became the first G20 country to "blacklist" Ireland as a tax haven.
Financial services in Jersey are a highly important part of the economy of the British island of Jersey.
Tax havens are also known as "offshore financial centers" or "international financial centers", phrases that may carry slightly different connotations but nevertheless are used almost interchangeably with "tax havens
Tax havens are low–tax jurisdictions that offer businesses and individuals opportunities for tax avoidance" (Hines, 2008). In this paper, I will use the expression "tax haven" and "offshore financial center" interchangeably (the list of tax havens considered by Dharmapala and Hines (2009) is identical to the list of offshore financial centers considered by the Financial Stability Forum (IMF, 2000), barring minor exceptions)
IMF Working Paper 07/87
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(help)Jurisdictions with the largest financial systems relative to GDP (Exhibit 2–3) tend to have relatively larger OFI [or Shadow Banking] sectors: Luxembourg (at 92% of total financial assets), the Cayman Islands (85%), Ireland (76%) and the Netherlands (58%)
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(help)Think-tank New Financial's study, which focuses on the "raw" value of actual domestic and international financial activity like managing assets and issuing equity, underscored the overall dominance of New York as the world's top financial center.
In addition, the International Monetary Fund has expressed concern that the Fed, by raising rates, could increase pressure on developing economies.; "Rich economies must heed policy impact on emerging nations: Carney". Reuters. 6 June 2019. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
emerging market assets will be driven primarily by local fundamentals
English law remains one of our most significant exports and continues to ensure the UK plays a leading role in global commerce; "English Common Law is the most widespread legal system in the world" (PDF). Sweet & Maxwell. November 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
Table 2: Shifted Profits: Country-by-Country Estimates (2015)
Study claims State shelters more multinational profits than the entire Caribbean
Such profit shifting leads to a total annual revenue loss of $200 billion globally
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)English law remains one of our most significant exports and continues to ensure the UK plays a leading role in global commerce; "English Common Law is the most widespread legal system in the world" (PDF). Sweet & Maxwell. November 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
In addition, the International Monetary Fund has expressed concern that the Fed, by raising rates, could increase pressure on developing economies.; "Rich economies must heed policy impact on emerging nations: Carney". Reuters. 6 June 2019. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
emerging market assets will be driven primarily by local fundamentals