Although the status of London and New York as the world’s leading financial centres has declined a bit as a result of geopolitical turmoil, some of Canada’s major cities are on the upswing, according to the latest Global Financial Centre Index (GFCI), which ranks the world’s cities in terms of industry competitiveness.
London and New York remain the top-ranked cities in the GFCI, but their scores have declined notably from the previous year, closing the gap with third place Singapore. Z/Yen Group, which compiles the index, says the Brexit vote and the surprise outcome of the U.S. election “have had a significant impact” on the scores for London and New York.
“We live in uncertain times and financial professionals hate uncertainty,” says Mark Yeandle, associate director of Z/Yen Group, in a statement. “Brexit has caused uncertainty in Europe and the election of Donald Trump has caused uncertainty globally.”
Nevertheless, the composition of the top five in the rankings remains unchanged, with Hong Kong and Tokyo coming in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Read: Report identifies key strengths of Canada’s four financial centres
At the same time, several of Canada’s biggest centres — Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver — all climbed up the rankings this year. Toronto gained three places to tenth spot; in addition, survey participants named Canada’s largest city as one of the centres that could become more significant in the next few years.
In addition, Montreal gained one spot in the rankings, up to 14th place, while Vancouver gained three places to sit in 17th place. “Financial professionals continue to favour safety and stability in their choices of location,” the report notes.
Conversely, Calgary fell 15 spots in the rankings to 49th place. This was the largest drop among cities that are ranked in the global top 50, and it was caused by volatility in the energy market.
Elsewhere in the rankings, the GFCI says the leading financial centres in the Asia/Pacific region generally saw their ratings rise: “Beijing, in particular rose significantly and in now within the top 20.”
Outside of New York, other U.S. cities saw their ratings hold steady or increase, with Los Angeles in particular moving into the top 20. Financial centres in the Middle East and Africa generally did well.
Meanwhile, the ratings for Western European financial centres remain volatile, as 16 declined and 12 rose in the rankings. Latin American centres “continue to struggle,” the report says, with the ratings for Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Panama all falling significantly.
Among offshore centres, ratings for the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands fell, but Bermuda and the Bahamas rose slightly.
The latest index rankings are based on 24,068 assessments collected from 3,009 financial services professionals who responded to an online questionnaire.
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