A study of the world's financial centres puts the US city ahead of London, New York and Singapore.

In a seemingly endless procession of rankings for the world’s leading financial centres, another measure of such locations puts New York as the world’s leading hub, with London, Singapore and Hong Kong just behind.

According to the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 17), the top five European cities are London, Zurich, Geneva, Luxembourg and Frankfurt. Among the centres languishing in this group are, perhaps unsurprisingly given recent economic woes, Athens, Rome, Madrid, Lisbon and Reykjavik. Ratings for a number of East European cities have taken a hit amid concerns about Russia’s clash with Ukraine, the authors of the report said. Cities including Istanbul, Almaty, Prague and Warsaw saw their ratings drop.

The top-10 European cities, in descending order, are: London, Zurich, Geneva, Luxembourg, Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Stockholm, Paris and Amsterdam.

By contrast, 11 of the top 12 Asia-Pacific cities experienced a rise in their ratings and rankings, with Busan logging the largest rise, followed by Shenzhen and Taipei.

The top Asia cities in descending order of rank are: Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, Shenzhen, Busan, Taipei, Melbourne, Beijing, Osaka, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Dalian, Mumbai, Jakarta, and Manila.

In North America, four of the top five North American centres rose in the ratings, while San Francisco fell slightly, losing some of the financial technology gains experienced a year earlier. Small rises occurred for Chicago, Boston and Toronto.

Overall, in the latest index, 43 financial centres climbed the ranks, 30 centres fell and eight of them were unchanged. The highest gain was by Dublin – up 18 places to 52nd, reversing some heavy falls in earlier years after the 2008 financial crisis. Other notable rises were Bermuda, up 17 places; the Cayman Islands, up 15 places, and the British Virgin Islands, up 13 places.

The report is issued by the Z/Yen Group, a think tank in London, and the study has been sponsored by the Qatar Financial Centre Authority. A total of 82 financial centres are ranked.

To arrive at its rankings, there are areas of competitiveness to be monitored, such as business environment, financial sector development, infrastructure, human capital and reputational and general factors. The report looks at three key measures to determine a financial centre’s profile along three dimensions of competitiveness: speciality, connectivity, and diversity. “Connectivity” measures how well known globally a centre is; “speciality” measures the depth of specific sectors, such as insurance, banking and investment management; and “diversity” measures how much variety of business there is. The higher the diversity, the bigger the score, and vice versa.