The Z/Yen Global Financial Centres Index for 2017 ranked London as the top financial hub in the world, followed by New York, Hong Kong, and Singapore. This claim for the top spot coming even as Britain faces exiting the EU in April 2019. But London has consistently claimed the top spot except in 2013 when New York briefly took over, only for London to emerge top again in 2015 and continue the lead.

To see why London is always considered a top world financial centre, looking at the ranking criteria used by The Global Financial Centres Index gives some insights:

• Business sector environment

In the 1980s the UK introduced radical reforms that were popularly nicknamed the ‘Big Bang’ reforms by the Thatcher administration. These laws deregulated what had been restrictive laws for participating in global finance. The effect was that UK business was able to utilise the structures that had been laid by the British Empire and maintained by the Commonwealth. This allowed many businesses to do lucrative trade globally and repatriate funds to London. Even foreign firms found the financial regulations in London more favourable and set up headquarters there.

• Financial sector development

London no doubt has the most advanced financial sector in the world. The City of London financial district hosts the financial headquarters for a large number of the world’s top financial players including HSBC, Barclays, Standard Chartered, and Old Mutual among others. The London Stock Exchange is among the top 5 most traded exchanges in the world. In short, the world of banking, insurance, and stocks exchange converges in London.

• Infrastructure

London is uniquely positioned as a travel hub with many transatlantic flights making an almost mandatory stop at Heathrow. The city is also linked to continental Europe by rail, road, and sea.  London is also one of the few inland cities that has significant shipping activities thanks to the navigable River Thames.

• Human Capital

The UK is home to premier learning institutions including Cambridge, Oxford and the London School of Economics. These learning institutions, as well as others of high-quality learning, consistently churn out young graduates into the world of finance.

The UK remains highly attractive to young people interested in setting up start-ups, with a huge concentration of start-up incubation and acceleration programs based in the city.

• Reputational and general factors

As a city that is older than New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo and many others, London has a grand reputation as a city associated with stability, old money, and royalty. There are bragging rights to being based in the City of London.