Asian cities are closing in on London and New York in a ranking of competitiveness among the world’s leading financial centres and it now holds five of the top 10 spots. Dublin tumbled 13 places in the past six months.

The Global Financial Centres Index, ranks 75 cities and is produced twice yearly by the Z/Yen Group think-tank, in association with the City of London corporation.

The index rates and ranks each major financial centre in the world in terms of competitiveness. Since its launch in March 2007, the increase in the number of respondents and additional data in successive editions has highlighted the changing priorities and concerns of financial
services professionals, according to Z/Yen.

This 6th edition of GFCI, published Tuesday, provides ratings and rankings for 75 financial centres, up from 62 in GFCI 5, calculated by a ‘factor assessment model’. This combines instrumental factors (external indices) such as office rents, airport satisfaction and tax rates with assessments of financial centres from responses to an online questionnaire.

Five Asian cities have pushed into the top 10 since the fifth index was published last March.

Shenzhen has been placed at number five, with Shanghai and Beijing rising the fastest, to positions 10 and 22.

In the past six months, Hong Kong has gained 45 points and Singapore has added 32 points. All four cities now have scores in the 700s, threatening the leads of the top two.

European financial centres have had mixed fortunes since March. Several centres including Paris, Munich and Madrid have seen strong improvements in their ratings but Dublin and Glasgow have tumbled.

Dublin fell from 10th to 23rd place and Glasgow from 31st to 49th.