22 March 2011
Dubai retains its position as the regional financial centre, but Doha is fast catching up as an alternative centre, according to the latest survey of global financial service managers. But both are losing to Asian rivals.
Dubai retains its position as the region's leading financial centre, according to a new survey. The city is the 28th most popular financial centre in the world, according to Yzen's 9th edition of the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI).
Worryingly for Dubai, its nearest Middle East rival Qatar, at 32nd place, has been fast coming up the ranks. "The rating gap between these two centres has halved since GFCI 8 and is now only eight points. Bahrain continue to slip, down seven places to 49th (the largest decline this time)."
"Dubai is still experiencing difficulties and is being overtaken by a number of Asian centres at the moment - I hope it will get better soon," a Dubai-based asset manager noted in the report.
Riyadh is placed 70th in the index, just above Istanbul and Athens.
GFCI uses responses to an ongoing online questionnaire completed by international financial services professionals. Respondents are asked to rate those centres with which they are familiar and to answer a number of questions relating to their perceptions of competitiveness. Overall, 33,751 financial centre assessments from 1,970 financial services professionals were used to compute GFCI 9,with older assessments discounted according to age.
Globally, London remains the number one financial centre in the world, with New York, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai making up the top five. The top three financial centres control about 70% of the equity trading.
However, London's reputation as the number one financial centre is under threat. Close to 43% of respondents in the survey have considered leading London, largely on account of high cost of living high taxes and poor quality of life. Twenty-five per cent of senior managers pilled said they would leave the UK over the next few years.
Hong and Shanghai are likely to gain the most influence over the coming years, largely to support the Chinese economy. Respondents predicted Shanghai to be the most significant centre in the future, while Hong Kong was predicted to be the number one place for respondents to open new offices.
Some key regional highlights from the survey:
* Dubai and Qatar are both identified as centres that are set to become more significant.
* Respondents identify Dubai and Qatar are the places where their news offices will open
* Riyadh has emerged as an 'evolving' centre
* Middle Eastern centres are particularly well supported by North American respondents. Respondents from Europe and the offshore centres rate Dubai less positively than average.
* Respondents from offshore centres are far more positive about Qatar. Nearly half of the assessments given to Qatar are from Asia
* Four centres (Abu Dhabi, Calgary, Panama and Cyprus) have been added to the GFCI questionnaire recently but have yet to acquire enough assessments to be rated in the main index.
Regionally, Dubai is seen as the regional financial centre with 51 banks operating in the city and the wider UAE, and hundreds of international financial institutions calling the Dubai International Financial Centre their regional home. Despite its spate of problems and the DIFC being dubbed as the 'Dubai International Foreclosure Centre', the centre remains a magnet and claims to have 16 of the world's top 20 banks, eight of the world's largest asset managers and four of the world's five largest insurance companies.
Meanwhile, Bahrain appears to have fallen out favour completely, even without its current political crisis (Bahrain ranked behind Qatar in the 8th edition of the survey as well).
However, Bahrain is home to 134 financial institutions, including 30 regional banks, 27 Islamic banks, and has been at least historically a regional financial centre.
Qatar Central Bank's website shows that the country has 18 banks, of which three are international, four regional and four Islamic banks. In addition, The Qatar Financial Centre has issued at least 134 licenses to date, according to its website.
Saudi Arabia has branches of 11 foreign banks and Capital Markets Authority has licensed 94 firms to operate in the Kingdom.
AlifArabia 2011
Dubai retains its position as the regional financial centre, but Doha is fast catching up as an alternative centre, according to the latest survey of global financial service managers. But both are losing to Asian rivals.
Dubai retains its position as the region's leading financial centre, according to a new survey. The city is the 28th most popular financial centre in the world, according to Yzen's 9th edition of the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI).
Worryingly for Dubai, its nearest Middle East rival Qatar, at 32nd place, has been fast coming up the ranks. "The rating gap between these two centres has halved since GFCI 8 and is now only eight points. Bahrain continue to slip, down seven places to 49th (the largest decline this time)."
"Dubai is still experiencing difficulties and is being overtaken by a number of Asian centres at the moment - I hope it will get better soon," a Dubai-based asset manager noted in the report.
Riyadh is placed 70th in the index, just above Istanbul and Athens.
GFCI uses responses to an ongoing online questionnaire completed by international financial services professionals. Respondents are asked to rate those centres with which they are familiar and to answer a number of questions relating to their perceptions of competitiveness. Overall, 33,751 financial centre assessments from 1,970 financial services professionals were used to compute GFCI 9,with older assessments discounted according to age.
Globally, London remains the number one financial centre in the world, with New York, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai making up the top five. The top three financial centres control about 70% of the equity trading.
However, London's reputation as the number one financial centre is under threat. Close to 43% of respondents in the survey have considered leading London, largely on account of high cost of living high taxes and poor quality of life. Twenty-five per cent of senior managers pilled said they would leave the UK over the next few years.
Hong and Shanghai are likely to gain the most influence over the coming years, largely to support the Chinese economy. Respondents predicted Shanghai to be the most significant centre in the future, while Hong Kong was predicted to be the number one place for respondents to open new offices.
Some key regional highlights from the survey:
* Dubai and Qatar are both identified as centres that are set to become more significant.
* Respondents identify Dubai and Qatar are the places where their news offices will open
* Riyadh has emerged as an 'evolving' centre
* Middle Eastern centres are particularly well supported by North American respondents. Respondents from Europe and the offshore centres rate Dubai less positively than average.
* Respondents from offshore centres are far more positive about Qatar. Nearly half of the assessments given to Qatar are from Asia
* Four centres (Abu Dhabi, Calgary, Panama and Cyprus) have been added to the GFCI questionnaire recently but have yet to acquire enough assessments to be rated in the main index.
Regionally, Dubai is seen as the regional financial centre with 51 banks operating in the city and the wider UAE, and hundreds of international financial institutions calling the Dubai International Financial Centre their regional home. Despite its spate of problems and the DIFC being dubbed as the 'Dubai International Foreclosure Centre', the centre remains a magnet and claims to have 16 of the world's top 20 banks, eight of the world's largest asset managers and four of the world's five largest insurance companies.
Meanwhile, Bahrain appears to have fallen out favour completely, even without its current political crisis (Bahrain ranked behind Qatar in the 8th edition of the survey as well).
However, Bahrain is home to 134 financial institutions, including 30 regional banks, 27 Islamic banks, and has been at least historically a regional financial centre.
Qatar Central Bank's website shows that the country has 18 banks, of which three are international, four regional and four Islamic banks. In addition, The Qatar Financial Centre has issued at least 134 licenses to date, according to its website.
Saudi Arabia has branches of 11 foreign banks and Capital Markets Authority has licensed 94 firms to operate in the Kingdom.
AlifArabia 2011
