Hong Kong ranks third globally in Global Financial Centres Index, closing rating gaps with first and second places
Z/Yen from the United Kingdom and the China Development Institute from Shenzhen published the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) 38 Report today (September 25). Hong Kong's overall rating increased by four points to 764, maintaining third place globally and first place in Asia Pacific. The rating gaps with first place (New York) and second place (London) narrowed to two points and one point respectively.
In the report, Hong Kong's ranking in fintech offerings leapt from fourth place to first in the world, and those in the areas of "business environment", "infrastructure", and "reputational and general" also rose further to first globally, while ranking second and third globally in "human capital" and "financial sector development" respectively. In addition, Hong Kong ranked among the top in the assessments by practitioners in various financial industry sectors, among which it maintained the top three positions globally in the "banking", "investment management", "insurance" and "finance" sectors.
A Government spokesman said, "The report fully recognises Hong Kong's leading status, strengths and competitiveness as an international financial centre. Currently, the global political and economic landscape is complex and ever-changing. Hong Kong maintains the unique advantages of the 'one country, two systems' principle, leveraging the qualities of being connected with the Mainland and the world, international, diversified and inclusive, fully playing its role as a 'super connector' and 'super value-adder' and providing a stable and predictable policy and investment environment for global investors to satisfy their needs for diversified asset allocation. In fact, Mainland and overseas capital have continued to flow into Hong Kong’s stock market, banking system as well as its asset and wealth management business since last year. Stock trading, the initial public offerings market and the refinancing market have all been very active."
The spokesman added, "Hong Kong ranked first globally in fintech offerings, reflecting that the joint effort of the Government and the industry over the years to leverage technology in delivering more convenient, efficient and inclusive financial services has earned international recognition. The Government actively embraces the development of fintech, while financial regulators encourage the testing and application of cutting-edge technology through tools such as sandboxes and promote the development of digital assets in a prudent manner at the same time. The Government issued the Policy Statement 2.0 on the Development of Digital Assets in Hong Kong in June this year, which exactly demonstrates our commitment to establishing Hong Kong as an innovation hub for the global digital assets field. The regime for stablecoin issuers was implemented in August this year. We are also formulating the legislative proposals regarding the licensing regimes for digital asset dealing services and custodian services."
The spokesman further added, "The Chief Executive’s 2025 Policy Address has announced a series of policy measures to further strengthen Hong Kong's financial system and continuously promote the development of stock market, fixed income market, and asset and wealth management business. With the support of the central ministries, we will deepen and expand mutual market access, and support the internationalisation of Renminbi (RMB) in a steady and prudent manner. Meanwhile, we will expedite the development of new growth areas, including building an international gold trading market and developing a commodity trading ecosystem, to reinforce and enhance Hong Kong's status as an international financial centre.
"We will continuously strengthen the stock market, including encouraging more overseas and Mainland enterprises to list in Hong Kong, further optimising the regimes for listing on the Main Board and issuing structured products, and exploring shortening the stock settlement cycle to T+1, etc. We will also continue to press ahead with the inclusion of an RMB trading counter under Stock Connect’s Southbound trading for Hong Kong stocks.
"We will also continue to enhance financial infrastructure, including the collaboration between the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's CMU OmniClear and the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited to explore centralised management and the collateralisation of assets (such as shares and bonds) by investors on a single platform, with a view to fostering interplay between various mutual-market access mechanisms. In addition, we will promote more measures on better using offshore RMB and Chinese Government Bonds. We will further address the needs of investors and strengthen Hong Kong’s function in connecting the Mainland and international capital markets as well as its role as a global offshore RMB business hub.
"On asset and wealth management business, a total of $35.1 trillion in assets was under management in Hong Kong as of the end of last year, representing year-on-year growth of 13 per cent, with an 81 per cent surge in net fund inflows to $705 billion, fully reflecting the affirmation of Mainland and overseas investors towards the Hong Kong market."
The GFCI Report has been released every March and September since 2007. In GFCI 38, 120 financial centres were assessed, and Hong Kong ranked third globally with an overall rating of 764.
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