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, and is widely quoted as a top source for ranking financial centres.

GFCI 34 (September 2023)
The latest thirty-fourth edition of the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 34) was published on 28 September 2023. GFCI 34 provides evaluations of future competitiveness and rankings for 121 financial centres around the world. Rankings are based on around 10,000 qualitative surveys from respondents working in financial services and related industries combined with 153 quantitative factors, with measures from the World Bank, The Economist Intelligence Unit, the OECD and United Nations. The 2023 report ranks New York at the top position followed by London and Singapore. Only the top 20 are shown in the following table:

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

(*) Centres that have moved between categories between GFCI 33 and GFCI 34.

(Δ) Centres that have appeared in GFCI 34 but not in GFCI 33.

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.

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.