London prevails as the most attractive wealth management and private banking hub globally, ahead of Zurich and Hong Kong in second and third place respectively, while there are signs that offshore centres have recovered some of their old lustre, a new survey shows.

Filling the remaining seven of the top 10 spots are New York, Singapore, Geneva, Toronto, Vancouver, Frankfurt and Jersey, Z/Yen Group's Global Financial Centres Index for 2012 showed.  Last year, behind the top three centres as wealth management's most-wanted places (London, Geneva and New York) were: Toronto, Hong Kong, Zurich, Singapore, Jersey, Vancouver and Boston, the London-based think tank said.

London also ranks number one in the asset management industry, although in this respect is followed by New York and Singapore, Z/Yen Group said.

In terms of overall financial centre ratings, again, London scores above the rest with 785, up four points from GFCI's 2011 reading of 781. Although in second place tailing London, New York's rating has slipped seven points to 765. Hong Kong’s rating - despite holding third place - has fallen 21 points from 754 to 733. Ratings scores range from zero to 1,000.

Meanwhile, the firm surveyed 1,980 London-based financial services professionals, who completed 26,180 financial centre assessments. Of those, just under half (49 per cent) anticipate that London will become more competitive over the next three years. This compares with 63 per cent of respondents based elsewhere in Europe, 73 per cent in Asia and 77 per cent of respondents in offshore centres.

The GFCI has been tracking movements in the competitiveness of financial centres around the world since 2007. At present, it follows 77 centres.

The euro crisis cloud lingers

Madrid, Lisbon, Dublin and Athens all have lower ratings in 2012, as was also the case in 2010 and 2011. Although Frankfurt and Paris both rose slightly in 2011, this year the two countries saw “a reversal of these gains”, the firm said. Nonetheless, some improvements have made their way in Europe, with Geneva re-entering the index’s top 10.

Meanwhile, the past trend of large rises in the ratings of Asia-Pacific centres appears to have ended, the firm added. For example, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei and Shenzhen all declined this year. Specifically, centres on the mainland of China have seen “significant declines”, with Shanghai taking the largest tumble, down 31 points.

“GFCI respondents believe that the Asian centres will continue to become more significant in the medium- to long-term,” the firm said.

Offshore gains ground 

Offshore centres, which the firm noted have suffered “significant reputational damage” in the past four years, gained momentum in 2010/11. However, the 2012 index conveys a mixed picture this year, with no significant moves, except for the Bahamas which gained 22 points. Jersey and Guernsey remain the leading offshore centres.

Progress is also notable in the Middle East, with Qatar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh all logging increases in both ratings and rankings.

Mixed picture in the Americas

For New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, DC, ratings have all fallen. In Canada, Toronto saw a very small decline, while Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver have all risen. Of all three centres, South America’s Sao Paulo showed the largest increase.