Global Financial Centres Index

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The Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) ranks the competitiveness of financial centres based on over 29,000 assessments from an online questionnaire and over 100 indices from organisations such as the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the Economist Intelligence Unit. ^[1] It was first published in March 2007. It has been jointly published twice per year by the London-based think tank Z/Yen and the China Development Institute since 2015. ^[2] It is widely quoted as a top source for ranking financial centres. ^{[3] [4] [5]}

GFCI 37 (March 2025)

The 37th edition of the GFCI was published in March 2025. ^[6]

Top 20 Centres in GFCI 37 (March 2025) ^[6]

Rank	Centre	Rating	Change in rank	Change in rating
1	New York City	769		6
2	London	762		12
3	Hong Kong	760		11
4	Singapore	750		3
5	San Francisco	749		7
6	Chicago	746		6
7	Los Angeles	745		6
8	Shanghai	744		6
9	Shenzhen	743		11
10	Seoul	742	1	13
11	Frankfurt	741	1	11
12	Dubai	740	4	17
13	Washington, D.C.	739	1	11
14	Dublin	738		13
15	Geneva	737	2	11
16	Luxembourg	736	3	16
17	Paris	730	2	11
18	Amsterdam	734	9	22
19	Boston	733	3	16
20	Beijing	732	2	11

Financial centre profiles (GFCI 36, September 2024)

The latest report ranked 120 international financial centres into the following matrix:

Financial Centre Profiles (GFCI 36, September 2024) ^[7]

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

An asterisk (*) denotes centres that have moved between categories between GFCI 35 and GFCI 36.

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. ^[7]

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	Singapore	London	Singapore	Singapore	London
3	London	Hong Kong	London	Shanghai	Singapore
4	Hong Kong	Singapore	Hong Kong	London	Hong Kong
5	Shanghai	San Francisco	Seoul	San Francisco	San Francisco
6	San Francisco	Los Angeles	Los Angeles	Los Angeles	Shanghai
7	Chicago	Chicago	Shenzhen	Chicago	Chicago
8	Los Angeles	Washington, D.C.	San Francisco	Hong Kong	Los Angeles
9	Seoul	Shanghai	Chicago	Beijing	Tokyo
10	Geneva	Tokyo	Shanghai	Washington, D.C.	Dublin
11	Beijing	Paris	Frankfurt	Shenzhen	Beijing
12	San Diego	Seoul	Beijing	Seoul	Dubai
13	Frankfurt	Zurich	Luxembourg	Geneva	Boston
14	Toronto	Dublin	Dubai	San Diego	Shenzhen
15	Shenzhen	San Diego	Washington, D.C.	Boston	Frankfurt

Key areas

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 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 infrastructure factors account for the price and availability of office space at the location, as well as public transport.

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.

Reputational and general considers more subjective aspects such as innovation, brand appeal, cultural diversity and competitive positioning.

Top 15 centres by industry sector

The index provides sub-rankings in the main areas of financial services – banking, investment management, insurance, professional services, government and regulation, finance, fintech, and trading. ^[7]

Level	Banking	Investment management	Insurance	Professional services	Government and regulatory	Finance	Fintech	Trading
1	London	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	Singapore	New York City	Hong Kong	New York City	New York City
2	New York City	New York City	New York City	New York City	London	Shenzhen	London	Singapore
3	Hong Kong	London	London	London	Singapore	London	Singapore	London
4	Shanghai	Shenzhen	Singapore	Seoul	Zurich	New York City	Frankfurt	Shanghai
5	Los Angeles	Singapore	Shenzhen	San Francisco	Shanghai	Shanghai	Dubai	Seoul
6	Singapore	Dublin	Beijing	Dubai	Los Angeles	Frankfurt	Shanghai	Hong Kong
7	Washington, D.C.	Shanghai	San Francisco	Hong Kong	Frankfurt	Washington, D.C.	Hong Kong	Los Angeles
8	Shenzhen	Dubai	Chicago	Los Angeles	San Francisco	Seoul	Dublin	Chicago
9	Chicago	Chicago	Tokyo	Chicago	Hong Kong	Beijing	Amsterdam	Paris
10	Frankfurt	San Francisco	Los Angeles	Luxembourg	Chicago	Tokyo	San Francisco	Geneva
11	Beijing	Frankfurt	Shanghai	Shenzhen	Geneva	San Francisco	Paris	San Francisco
12	Paris	Los Angeles	Frankfurt	Zurich	Seoul	Seoul	Los Angeles	Shenzhen
13	San Francisco	Paris	Boston	Geneva	Washington, D.C.	Chicago	Washington, D.C.	Dubai
14	Tokyo	Seoul	Zurich	Washington, D.C.	Shenzhen	Dubai	Chicago	Luxembourg
15	Geneva	Luxembourg	Geneva	Paris	Amsterdam	Los Angeles	Tokyo	Washington, D.C.

References

1. Jones, Huw (24 March 2022). "New York widens lead over London in top finance centres index". Reuters. Archived from the original on Oct 8, 2022. 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.
2. Yeandle, Mark (September 2016). "The Global Financial Centres Index 20". Long Finance. Archived from the original on Jul 18, 2023.
3. Yoshio Okubo (October 2014). "Comparison of Global Financial Center" (PDF). Harvard Law School, Program on International Financial Systems, Japan-U.S. Symposium. Archived from the original on 30 May 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
4. Glover, John (17 March 2014). "New York Strips London of Mantle as World's Top Financial Center" . Bloomberg L.P. Archived from the original on Jun 9, 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
5. Pooler, Michael (1 October 2014). "New York and London vie for crown of world's top financial centre" . The Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2 Oct 2014. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
6. "GFCI 37 Rank - Long Finance". www.longfinance.net. Retrieved 2025-03-22.
7. "GFCI 37 Rank - Long Finance". www.longfinance.net. Retrieved 2024-09-24.

External links

• Official website