London leads global financial rankings for the second year running

New figures published today by the City of London Corporation, show that London continues to hold the top spot for financial and professional services in terms of overall offer when compared to other global destinations, including New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, Paris and Frankfurt.

The research, is the second annual study of the UK’s global offer to business and looks at 95 different metrics, adding new areas including green finance activity across all asset classes compared to the previous year.

While responding to the challenges of the past twelve months, the UK continues to perform strongly across all key dimensions. The research shows it maintains a lead as an innovative ecosystem, its financial markets are boosted by international activity and its financial services regulatory regime remains the most favourable in the world.

London received an overall competitiveness score of 61, followed by New York (58) and Singapore (53). The rankings were rounded out with Frankfurt (45), Hong Kong (39) and Tokyo (36). For the first time, the research includes Paris as a second European comparator centre, with a competitiveness score of 41.

Key areas where London and the UK excel on the global stage include:

• The UK’s international financial reach continues to be unmatched. Against the backdrop of a challenging year, UK financial services exports increased and the UK’s trade surplus remains higher than in all other global financial centres.
• London is Europe’s capital for tech and innovation, home to more than a quarter of Europe’s unicorns.
• London increased its share of headquarters of Fortune Global 500 firms by more than a third.
• London and the UK remain Europe’s leading destination for investment in financial services and remain the world’s leading foreign exchange trading centre.
• The UK is Europe’s leading centre for asset management and its global market share is increasing again. It also remains the biggest centre for issuance and trading of international bonds.
• More than a quarter of posts on executive committees of financial services firms in the UK are held by women, putting the UK ahead of other centres.