‎A new ranking of global financial centres places Toronto12th overall. London and New York lead the rankings, but Hong Kong appears to be joining them.

The rankings in the Global Financial Centres Index are based on 14 factors of competitiveness, such as regulatory environment, access to international financial markets, tax regimes and quality of life in the city, as well as an ongoing online survey of international financial industry professionals.

The ranking places Toronto in 12th spot, unchanged from its previous position in the same index. Vancouver is 21st overall, up from 23rd position; and Montreal is 25th, up from 26th. The survey notes that Calgary was recently added as a new financial centre in the online survey, and it will be included in the listings when it has obtained a sufficient number of assessments.

While Toronto is only 12th on a global basis, it ranks third in North America, after New York and Chicago. And, the survey points out that it is the only North American centre “to receive a higher than average score from the offshore centres; it is also well regarded by respondents based in London, although less so by the rest of Europe.”

Additionally, the city ranks fourth worldwide in the index’s new “Wealth Management and Private Banking sub-index”. Industry sector sub-indices are created using only the questionnaire responses from respondents working in the relevant industry sectors, and the report cautions that the new sub-index, “should be viewed with caution at this stage as the sample size is relatively small.”

Nevertheless, it reports that for that sub-index, London is tops, followed by Geneva, New York and then Toronto. Bahrain, Tallinn, Qatar, Dublin, Brussels and Stockholm round out the top 10.

Elsewhere, the report notes that there is no significant difference between London and New York in the latest ratings, and “respondents continue to believe that these centres exhibit good levels of co-operation.” Hong Kong is in third place, and the report notes that the gap to second place “is not a significant difference and that Hong Kong has joined London and New York as a genuinely global financial centre.” Singapore is fourth and Tokyo is fifth.

“Asian centres continue to exhibit good growth with Shanghai entering the top 10 and Seoul gaining four places and moving into the top 25 for the first time,” it notes. Whereas, offshore centres such as the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas and the Isle of Man all saw notable declines in their ratings.