London Again the Most Competitive Financial Center . . .

according to the third in a series of reports commissioned by--you guessed it--the City of London.  The rankings, which have New York second and Hong Kong a distant third, are based on surveys of professionals.  The surveys focus on 14 factors categorized into 5 key areas:

People involving “the availability of good personnel, the flexibility of the labour market, business education and the development of ‘human capital’.”

Business Environment covering “regulation, tax rates, levels of corruption, economic freedom and the ease of doing business.“

Market Access covering “the levels of securitisation, volume and value of trading in equities and bonds, as well as the clustering effect of having many firms involved in the financial services sector together in one centre.”

Infrastructure, focusing mainly on “the cost and availability of buildings and office space, although it also includes other infrastructure factors such as transport.”

General Competitiveness covering “the overall competitiveness of centres in terms of more general economic factors such as price levels, economic sentiment and how centres are perceived as places to live.”

NB: the rankings presumably were compiled before the announcement that the UK intends to crack down on favorable tax rules for non-domiciled foreign residents (non-doms).

Update:  Apparently, some of the responses to the survey came back before the tax changes were announced, "[b]ut the 411 replies since last September show New York with a big lead over London."

Posted by: Paul Rose