Both cities saw their rating drop by nine points in the 40th edition of the Global Financial Centers Index released on Wednesday by London-based think tank Z/Yen Partners and Shenzhen-based China Development Institute.
Published twice a year, the latest index assesses 139 financial hubs across 144 instrumental factors covering five areas of competitiveness: business environment, human capital, infrastructure, financial sector development and reputation. It drew on quantitative measures along with 39,531 assessments from more than 6,000 respondents to an online questionnaire.
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A view of Hong Kong’s skyline. Photo by Pexels |
Hong Kong, the highest-ranked Asian hub, tops the global rankings for financial sector development and places second in business environment, human capital and infrastructure.
Singapore, meanwhile, ranks first worldwide for reputation and among the top five in each of the other four areas.
Globally, New York remained the world’s leading financial hub, sitting four points ahead of London. The top four hubs all received lower ratings than in the previous edition in March.
Shanghai moved up one place into the top five and replaced San Francisco, which dived to 11th.
In the broader top 10, three more Asia-Pacific financial centers were featured — Tokyo (6th), Seoul (7th) and Shenzhen (8th).
The research noted that most of the data used for the latest rankings was collected after the outbreak of the recent conflict in the Middle East.
Despite the declines among several leading hubs, the average rating across all centers rose 0.8%, with most recording higher scores.
Eastern Europe & Central Asia posted the steepest decline in average rating, down 1.09%, while Asia/Pacific recorded the largest increase at 1.48%.