The Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) is a ranking of the competitiveness of financial centres based on over 29,000 financial centre assessments from an online questionnaire together with over 100 indices from organisations such as the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Economist Intelligence Unit. It is compiled and published twice a year by Z/Yen Group and sponsored by the Qatar Financial Centre Authority. It is widely quoted as a source for ranking financial centres.
Contents
Ranking
The ranking is an aggregate of indices from five key areas: "business environment", "financial sector development", "infrastructure factors", "human capital", "reputation and general factors". As of September 2016, the top centres worldwide are:
N.B. Trinidad and Tobago is the latest new entry, having not been included in the GFCI 19 ranking.
Financial centre profiles
The report groups 87 of the financial centres into the following matrix: Note: This section will be updated in the GFCI 22 set of rankings.
Key areas
The human capital factors summarise the availability of a skilled workforce, the flexibility of the labour market, the quality of the business education and the skill-set of the workforce, and quality of life. The business environment factors aggregate and value the regulation, tax rates, levels of corruption, economic freedom and how difficult in general it is to do business. To measure regulation an online questionnaire has been used. The financial sector development factors assess the volume and value of trading in capital markets and other financial markets, the cluster effect of the number of different financial service companies at the location, and employment and economic output indicators. The infrastructure factors account for the price and availability of office space at the location, as well as public transport. Reputation and General considers more subjective aspects such as innovation, brand appeal, cultural diversity and competitive positioning.
Industry sectors
The index provides sub-rankings in the main areas of financial services – banking, investment management, insurance, professional services, government and regulation.