International financial centres index webinar

This will be a virtual event to discuss in detail our most recent international financial centres index that measures the size and growth of financial centres in 65 economies around the world.

Our analysis is based on tens of thousands of data points, and we invite participants to ask us questions during the webinar on what the data tells us about market activity in individual financial centres or sectors.

Highlights from our international financial centres index include:

• The top international financial centres: the US’s top spot is unrivalled. The UK is in a strong second place but has lost market share over the last 10 years. Hong Kong ranks third and is a much smaller international financial centre than the UK.
  

• The ‘internationalness’ of financial centres: the US is the largest international financial centre in the world, but international cross-border financial flows play a relatively more significant role in the UK, Hong Kong, and Luxembourg, where around half of all financial activity is international (in those sectors where we were able to measure it).
  

• The largest domestic financial centres: the US is by some distance the largest domestic financial centre in the world. The US has twice as much domestic financial activity as China (the second-largest market), and more than six times as much as Japan (the third-largest).
  

• A focus on Europe: the UK is the largest international and domestic financial centre in Europe, but its lead is more pronounced in international financial activity than it is in our domestic ranking. The UK is more than four times as large as the second-largest international financial centre in Europe (Germany) but only just ahead of France in our domestic ranking. Luxembourg is the third-largest international financial centre in Europe but has a very small domestic market.
  

• A focus on Asia: Hong Kong is the leading international financial hub in Asia ahead of Singapore, while China and Japan are the largest domestic markets in Asia. Hong Kong is a global leader in IPOs and other equity issuance by foreign companies. Despite efforts to boost its credentials as an international financial centre, Japan has dropped out of the top 10 in our international ranking.

We expect participants to be a combination of policy and government affairs specialists, government and regulatory officials, and frontline practitioners from around the world.

As usual, it will be a moderated discussion held under the Chatham House rule, and we will circulate a thematic summary after the event.