City ranks 6th among world’s top financial centers

Shanghai has moved up to the sixth place in the 22nd Global Financial Centres Index, moving from the 13th place in the previous ranking. This is the first time Shanghai has joined the world’s top 10 since the inception of the index in 2007.

In a subranking, Shanghai was ranked the world’s number one among insurers, demonstrating that market players view the city as one of the most important markets.

The research, released by British think-tank Z/Yen Group and Shenzhen-based think-tank China Development Institute, researched 108 cities globally in its latest edition.

According to Mark Yeandle, vice-president of Z/Yen and a chief contributor to the GFCI report, Shanghai has made great efforts in a bid to build a global financial center, particularly in terms of its improvements in financial infrastructure and regulatory environments.

The research has been examining global cities’ performances in business environment, development of financial sectors, infrastructure, human resources and reputation since March 2007, and reviews rankings every six months.

In the latest edition released in September, London remained the world’s top financial center, followed by New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo.

Hong Kong and Singapore were far better than Shanghai before, but as Shanghai has been constantly opening up with reforms, “Shanghai is closing the gap rapidly”, Yeandle said.

The research also suggests that Shanghai will further improve its business environment to make the city more business-friendly, in terms that include incentives for entrepreneurship, consistency of policies and transparency of administrations.

Yu Peng, senior researcher at the China Development Institute, said Shanghai is going to improve its global influence through playing an active roles in promoting global use of the renminbi, and in the Belt and Road Initiative.

“Shanghai needs to make efforts to continue to open up and strengthen cooperation with other global cities”, Yu said.

Beijing was ranked in 10th place, Shenzhen was in 20th place and Guangzhou in 32nd place in the latest edition of the research.

Shanghai’s ranking has been improving steadily in recent years. It was at 16th place in September 2016 and 21st place in September 2015.