New York has overtaken London as the world's leading financial center, as measured by The Global Financial Centers index. In the 15th edition of the rankings, New York's ratings rose seven points from a year ago to 786, narrowly edging London's rating of 784 (down from 794 a year earlier). GFCI's scale is out of 1,000.
According to the report, London's reputation suffered from things like uncertainty over European Union membership, regulatory creep and conservatism, expense, and regulatory failings for incidences such as rate swap scandals and J.P. Morgan's London whale episode.
The GFCI provides ratings for financial centers based on a “factor assessment model” using two sets of inputs. The first examines a city's competitiveness by ranking 103 “instrument factors,” examples that include availability of skilled personnel, regulatory, environment, international markets access and business infrastructure. The second input assesses financial centers through on online questionnaire.
