Infographic: Chinese Financial Centers Join World Lead

Chinese financial centers are becoming more competitive globally. The Global Financial Centres Index by London research initiative Long Finance, which has been ranking cities for the competitiveness of their financial industries since 2007, found in their latest report that Shanghai as well as Beijing had almost caught up to more established financial centers like Hong Kong and New York. Hong Kong’s neighbor Shenzhen scored equally well, with 739 index points compared to Beijing’s 748 and Shanghai’s 761.

In the report, which is published twice annually, New York held the top spot with a rating of 790 out of 1,000 points, before London (773) and Hong Kong (771).

More Chinese cities have recently been added to the ranking and some also surprised on the upside. Southern Chinese city Guangzhou rose from 650 in 2017 to 711 index points in 2019, and costal city Qingdao scored 688 points, up from 594 in 2016. The report takes into account business environment, financial sector development, infrastructure, human capital and reputational factors, among others.