Despite the effects of Brexit and the pandemic, London remains second only to New York in the latest rankings of more than a hundred global financial centres.The thirtieth edition of the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI), which evaluates the current effectiveness and future competitiveness of 116 financial centres around the world, says innovation, an open business environment and a broad talent base kept London ahead of all its European rivals.Compiled by the think-tanks, the China Development Institute in Shenzhen and Z/Yen Partners in London, the GFCI bases its rankings on on 146 instrumental factors provided by the likes of the World Bank, the Economist Intelligence Unit, the OECD and the United Nations."Asia-Pacific centres generally fell in the ratings and assessments from people based in Asia-Pacific suggest that they judge Chinese centres in particular less favourably than before," says the report. "This might suggest that the economic gains in the region arising from Covid-19 may be levelling off."The relatively strong performance of New York and London suggests that the financial services sectors in these cities managed to sustain their performance despite radical changes in working practices during the last 18 months."There had been fears that the UK's financial services might slump in the rankings when, because of Brexit, the nation lost the 'passporting' rights that had previously allowed the sector unfettered access to European Union markets.But, in fact, the index found that centres such as Frankfurt, Zurich, Luxembourg, and Brussels had fallen in the rankings as they scrambled to compete in the wake of Brexit.Prof Michael Mainelli, executive chairman at Z/Yen Group, said: “London scores highly across all the data series that we use to build the index.“It has great people, an open business environment, strong regulation, and a huge breadth of financial and associated services and expertise. It remains innovative and supportive of new approaches, with a strong technology and Fintech sector.”Fintech ratings were generally lower than in previous editions of the index but New York and Shanghai retained first and second positions, with London rising two places to third.Hong Kong and Singapore are in third and fourth positions in the overall rankings, with San Francisco, Los Angeles and Paris entering the top 10. Seven North American centres now feature in the top 20.Prof Mainelli said: “We see two patterns in the results for GFCI 30 – confidence in the recovery of the North American and Western European economies following the shock of 2020; and a levelling off following the rapid rise of Asia-Pacific centres and their economic stability in the covid-19 pandemic."Competition remains tight. Outside the top two centres, only five points on a 1,000-point scale separate the centres ranked third to eighth.”

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