Toronto has dropped out of the top 10 in the twenty-fourth global financial centres index (GFCI 24) unveiled Wednesday by London, U.K. based think tank, Z/Yen.
The index aims to assess the competitiveness of the world’s major financial centres.
Toronto slipped four places to 11 in the GFCI 24 rankings, although its underlying score didn’t change. Beijing, Zurich, and Frankfurt leapfrogged over Toronto, Boston, and San Francisco to enter the top 10, pushing out the three North American cities.
Vancouver, Montreal, and Calgary also slipped in the rankings, as their underlying scores declined. Montreal posted the biggest drop in the rankings, falling 11 places to 24, while Vancouver dropped three spots to 18 and Calgary slipped four spots to 42.
New York took over first place from London in the index, but scores for both cities fell slightly. Hong Kong, Singapore, and Shanghai rounded out the top five rankings. Scores for cities in the Asia-Pacific region generally rose, closing the gap with New York and London, Z/Yen says in a news release.
While North American cities saw their scores decline, a number of Western European centres, including Amsterdam, Vienna, and Milan, Zurich and Frankfurt, saw their scores rise.
“These centres may be the main beneficiaries of the uncertainty caused by Brexit,” says Z/Yen, but not all cities in Europe are successful in attracting new business.
“Surprisingly, despite some evident success in attracting new business, Dublin, Munich, Hamburg, Copenhagen, and Stockholm fell in the rankings, reflecting respondents’ views of their future prospects,” Z/Yen says.