Taipei rated world's 41st most competitive financial center

The index, which was launched in March 2007 by the U.K.-based Z/Yen Group for the City of London, is updated every six months.

The March 2009 edition -- the fifth in a series -- provides ratings for 62 major financial centers around the world, with three new entrants: Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.

The ratings are calculated based on assessments of the financial centers in a continuously running online questionnaire and on 57 instrumental factors grouped under four categories: people, business environment, infrastructure and general competitiveness.

The latest index uses 26,629 assessments from 1,455 financial services professionals, of whom 308 are new since the previous one was published in July 2008.

The report shows that ratings for all financial centers have dropped by an average of over 20 points, reflecting overall negativity about the present and future state of the sector amid the current financial storm.

Excluding the three new entrants, 18 of the other 59 centers rated have risen in the rankings, 28 have fallen and 13 remain unchanged.

According to the report, London, just ahead of New York, remains the world's most competitive financial center. Rounding out the top 10 are Singapore, Hong Kong, Zurich, Geneva, Chicago, Frankfurt, Boston and Dublin, in that order.

Among major financial centers in East Asia, Tokyo ranks 15th, down eight notches from the previous index; Shanghai has dropped one place to 35th; Beijing is down four notches to 51st; and Seoul has fallen five places to 53rd.

Stuart Fraser, chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee of the City of London, said the latest results reflect the severe loss of confidence across all financial centers, in the wake of a series of events such as the collapse of the global financial services firm Lehman Brothers and the effective nationalization by the U.S. government of the mortgage bodies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Fraser said the significant fall in scores for all centers rated reflects a more negative perception of the performance of financial services in general and the effect of the severe downturn in some financial sectors, particularly in investment banks and hedge funds.

However, Fraser noted that the top-ranked centers have shown a much greater degree of resilience and a smaller drop in scores than those lower down the rankings, adding that this may reflect a greater confidence in the ability of long-established centers to weather the global economic crisis.

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