The City of London has retained its crown as Europe's dominant financial centre as fears of a Brexit- induced exodus failed to materialize, coming second only to New York in the latest global financial centres index, which is published by think tank Z/Yen Group and ranks the world’s top 126 finance hubs.
It takes into account areas such as political stability, labour market flexibility, quality of life, infrastructure and innovation. The City comfortably beat rival European centres including Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam, which respectively came 11th, 16th and 19th.
It comes despite repeated warnings from chief executives and politicians that Brexit would damage the Square Mile's reputation. Despite London’s strong performance, the gap between the UK capital and New York has grown since September, when Z/Yen last published its index.
A mass exodus of finance jobs out of London failed to materialise post-Brexit, despite warnings about hundreds of thousands of jobs migrating to the Continent. The report will give the Square Mile a boost after it was stripped of its passporting rights following the UK’s exit from the EU, which gave companies full access to European markets.
