In March 2007, the City of London launched the Global Financial
Centres Index (GFCI). The GFCI is a ranking of the competitiveness
of financial centres based on a number of existing indices in
combination with a regular survey of senior industry figures from
around the world.
The seventh Global Financial Centres report was published in
March 2010 and the report can be downloaded from the link
below.
Report authors Z/Yen are currently collecting data for the next
cycle of the Global Financial Centres and we would be grateful for
your opinions on any financial centres with which you are familiar.
Please be assured that answers will be kept confidential, and will
be used only to compile the survey results. The survey should take
less than five minutes to complete.
Take the survey
now.
Download GFC7 (2mb)
Background
The GFCI builds upon previous independent research commissioned
by the City of London Corporation to evaluate London’s relative
competitiveness as a financial centre:
- Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, “Sizing up the
City – London’s Ranking as a Financial Centre”, City of London
Corporation (June 2003)
- Z/Yen, “The Competitive Position of London as a Global
Financial Centre”, City of London Corporation (November
2005).
These studies concluded that the key factors for financial
centre competitiveness were, in order of importance:
- the availability of skilled personnel;
- the regulatory environment;
- access to international financial markets;
- the availability of business infrastructure;
- access to customers;
- a fair and just business environment;
- government responsiveness;
- the corporate tax regime;
- operational costs;
- access to suppliers of professional services;
- the quality of life;
- cultural and language issues;
- the quality and availability of commercial property;
- the personal tax regime.
Both reports compared London with other financial centres
including New York City, Frankfurt and Paris. The GFCI builds upon
these reports and ranks financial centres on an ongoing
basis.
How the GFCI is compiled