Toronto ranks seventh in the twenty-second Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 22), up three spots from a year ago.
GFCI 22 was published on Monday by U.K. consulting firm Z/Yen.
Although Toronto’s rating (710) is down from it’s previous score, all of the top North American cities saw their scores fall, too, allowing Toronto to surpass rivals such as Boston and San Francisco in the rankings.
Montreal also climbed two places in the rankings to 12th spot overall, even as its rating fell. Vancouver held on to 17th place, and Calgary plunged 22 spots to 71st overall.
“All centres in North America fell in the GFCI ratings,” Z/Yen says in a news release. “New York fell. San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, and Washington also saw large falls. The decline of Canadian centres was less severe than the falls of the U.S. centres.”
New York continues to rank second overall in the world, behind London. Hong Kong edged ahead of Singapore into third place. Tokyo remains in fifth place, Shanghai sits sixth, just ahead of Toronto.
“There is an overall drop in confidence amongst the leading centres,” Z/Yen adds. “Of the top 25 centres, 23 fell in the ratings and only two rose.”
Surprisingly, London was one of the top centres that held up best, despite the uncertainty surrounding the Brexit negotiations.
“Western European financial centres are still volatile. Frankfurt, Dublin, Paris and Amsterdam all rose, but Zurich, Geneva, and Luxembourg fell in the ratings,” Z/Yen says. “Overall assessments for the European centres continued to fluctuate as people speculate about which centres might benefit from London leaving the EU.”
Generally, the leading financial centres in the Asia/Pacific region all fell in the ratings, Z/Yen notes.
The results are based on surveys from over 3,100 financial services professionals through an online questionnaire.