The latest index, which is based on 33,023 financial centre assessments completed by 1,876 financial services professionals, shows that the ratings gap between London, New York and Hong Kong is now ever smaller: London topped the rankings with 772 points, with New York and Hong Kong following closely behind at 770 and 760 respectively. The significance of this latest reading is the speed of Hong Kong’s rise, the jurisdiction having stormed up 21 points since the last index reading in March this year.

According to Z/Yen’s research, Hong Kong has been steadily closing the ratings gap between it and London and New York over the past three years and while Hong Kong trailed New York by 76 points in the inaugural index published in March 2007, it is now just 10 points behind.

"London and New York have long been considered the two top global financial centres. The top Asian centres have been catching up for a while, but financial services professionals around the globe have been consistent in saying that Hong Kong now joins the top two," Professor Michael Mainelli, executive chairman of the Z/Yen Group, said in a statement.

Also significant is the rapid rise of Shanghai: six months ago China’s second city was in eleventh position with 668 points and it now stands in sixth place with 693. Added to the fact that Shanghai has broken into the top ten global financial centres, Seoul is now in the top 25. In fact, as the report’s authors note, all the financial centres tipped to become more significant in the next few years are Asian - Singapore, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing and Seoul.

In other findings, comparing this latest index with that carried out six months ago, it would seem that confidence in global financial centres has broadly fallen: since March 2010 53 centres have lower ratings and just 17 have garnered higher ratings (5 have remained the same). Moreover, since the global financial crisis began, all offshore centres have shown larger falls than average, Z/Yen said.

The top ten global financial centres, according to the eighth Global Financial Centres Index are, in order: London, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Shanghai, Chicago, Zurich, Geneva and Sydney.