Qatar Top Financial Centre in Middle East in Latest GFC Index

The latest Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 10), covering 75 financial centres and sponsored by the QFC Authority, was published by the Z/Yen Group today.

The major changes from GFCI 9 in March 2011 are:

• In the Middle East Qatar stays in 30th place but rises 39 points to rank as the leading centre in the Middle East for the first time;
• Nordic and Eastern European centres - now getting strong support. Centres such as Tallinn (up 118 points in the ratings), Istanbul (up 86 points), Moscow (up 75 points), Helsinki (up 72 points), Copenhagen (up 55 points) and St Petersburg (up 50 points) all demonstrate strong increases in competitiveness;
• The Eurozone – capital cities of the weaker Euro economies are clearly suffering. Examples include Madrid down 11 places in the rankings, Dublin down ten places and Milan down nine places;
• More Clarity in Asia - the strongest centres are strengthening and consolidating their positions. Hong Kong is up 11 points, Singapore is up 13, Shanghai is up 30 points and Seoul is up 28. Certain Asian centres are now perceived as weaker - Tokyo, Beijing, Taipei and Shenzhen have all fallen in the ranks;
• The three top centres are now only four points apart (there was a gap of 16 points between first and third in GFCI 9). There is no significant difference between London, New York and Hong Kong in the ratings;
• Offshore centres – beginning to recover reputations - Guernsey has risen 28 points, the Isle of Man, Hamilton and the British Virgin Islands have all risen 27 points and Jersey has risen 26. The Cayman Islands and Gibraltar have also risen. Jersey and Guernsey remain the leading offshore centres.

GFCI 10 - Top Ten:

Centre	GFCI 10 Rank	GFCI 10 Rating	GFCI 9 Rank	GFCI 9 Rating	Change in Rank	Change in Rating
London	1	774	1	775	0	-1
New York	2	773	2	769	0	4
Hong Kong	3	770	3	759	0	11
Singapore	4	735	4	722	0	13
Shanghai	5	724	5	694	0	30
Tokyo	6	695	5	694	-1	1
Chicago	7	692	7	673	0	19
Zurich	8	686	8	665	0	21
San Francisco	9	681	13	655	4	26
Toronto	10	680	10	658	0	22

Professor Michael Mainelli, Executive Chairman of the Z/Yen Group, said:
“Most industries are sensitive to production factors, but finance seems to be increasingly sensitive to regulation. This tenth edition of the Global Financial Centres Index shows the increasing divorce of the financial services industry from today’s economies, but increasing entanglement with the turbulence of today’s governments. A good example is the Euro-zone crisis hitting financial centre ratings while Europe outside the crisis does well.”

Shashank Srivastava, Acting CEO of the QFC Authority, added:

“I am delighted that Qatar has been recognised as the leading financial centre in the Middle East for the first time by the GFC Index. Qatar’s latest rise of 39 points in the GFC Index also strongly maintains its existing world ranking of 30th and consolidates its earlier impressive rise of four places in the world rankings from 34th to 30th in March this year.

The GFC Index is a highly relevant and well-followed indicator reflecting the views and opinions of executives all over the world. These latest results demonstrate how Qatar continues to strengthen its position as a financial centre at a time when other regional markets have stagnated or declined. Qatar’s economy continues to perform exceptionally well against a documented backdrop of international and regional pressures while its business environment is increasingly recognised for the highest standards of transparency and quality of regulation – increasing its regional and global profile as a result.

These excellent results, together with Qatar’s recent rise of three places in the latest World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report to rank 14th in the world, the highest ranking of any state in the GCC, reinforce my belief that the Qatar Financial Centre offers financial services firms a uniquely attractive platform from which to grow their business both in Qatar and the broader GCC region.”

GFCI 10 uses 28,604 financial centre assessments completed by 1,887 financial services professionals. Since 2007, well over 100,000 assessments from over 6,000 respondents have built the index. GFCI is updated regularly and ratings change as assessments and instrumental factors change.