Cori Carl

The 2015 edition of The Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) was just released last month. It is often used as one of the sources for ranking financial centres.

The index – which is now in its 18th edition – is created using two main ingredients. The first is an analysis of 5 broad areas of competitiveness: 1) business environment, 2) financial sector development, 3) infrastructure, 4) human capital, and 5) reputational & general factors. And the second is an online survey given to financial services professionals. The 2015 edition includes responses from 3,194 professionals.

Below are the top 25 financial centres in the world according to the GFCI (the full list has 84 cities).

Here are a couple of things to note from this year’s index: 

London has overtaken New York for the top spot – but both remain more or less at parity if you dig into the numbers. 

Dublin is performing particularly well in Western Europe.

The leading centre in Eastern Europe is Warsaw (38th), with Istanbul just behind it.

Toronto is now second in North America, only to New York.

Sao Paulo remains the top Latin American centre.

And, Los Angeles (49th) and Liechtenstein (60th) join as new entrants this year.

It is truly a strange thing when a steam pipe bursts under an abandoned building in the dead of winter, but that’s exactly what happened under the Clinic Building at Greystone Park State Hospital in 2007, a month before the building was unceremoniously knocked down.  The steam congregated near the ceiling of the abandoned asylum infirmary, condensing on the pipes and dripping down in regular patterns - and creating these ice stalagmites.  An hour after taking this photograph, demolition workers came into the building and chased us through the tunnels; we had to hide in an attic in 0 degree weather for hours while cops searched for us.  The next time I drove out there, there was no trace that a building had ever stood in this spot.