London remains top international financial centre

London has earned the top spot in The Banker magazine’s annual International Financial Centre (IFC) rankings for 2017.

The city scored higher than 56 other international financial centres and continues to be a leading financial centre after topping the list in 2016.

Appeal 

The rankings showed London has kept its international appeal. The city attracted and generated the largest number of foreign direct investment in the four years leading up to 2016, and is continuing to boost its services in the financial services sector.

According to figures from commercial data provider Dun & Bradstreet, 1,208 new companies in the sector were launched in London between June 2016 and May 2017. This brings the total number of financial services companies in London to 49,185.

Improvement

Other international financial centres that scored highly on the list included New York, which kept its second place spot from 2016. Singapore, came in third place - an improvement on last year’s fourth place ranking.

Hong Kong and Tokyo also featured in the top five, coming in fourth and fifth place respectively.

Over 80 indicators were used in the analysis, with factors such as business environment and economic potential taken into account. The Banker, which is owned by the Financial Times Group, also compiled a separate ranking for specialised financial centres, with the Cayman Islands taking the top spot.