Part of a series on |
Finance |
---|
A financial centre (financial center in American English) or financial hub is a location with a significant concentration of participants in banking asset management, insurance, and financial markets, with venues and supporting services for these activities to take place.[3][4] Participants can include financial intermediaries (such as banks and brokers), institutional investors (such as investment managers, pension funds, insurers, and hedge funds), and issuers (such as companies and governments). Trading activity can take place on venues such as exchanges and involve clearing houses, although many transactions take place over-the-counter (OTC), directly between participants. Financial centres usually host companies that offer a wide range of financial services, for example relating to mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, or corporate actions; or which participate in other areas of finance, such as private equity, hedge funds, and reinsurance. Ancillary financial services include rating agencies, as well as provision of related professional services, particularly legal advice and accounting services.[5]
The International Monetary Fund's classes of major financial centres are: International Financial Centres (IFCs), such as New York City,[6] London, and Singapore; Regional Financial Centres (RFCs), such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Frankfurt; and Offshore Financial Centres (OFCs), such as the Cayman Islands, Dublin, Cyprus, and Luxembourg.[a] The IMF notes some overlap between Regional Financial Centres and Offshore Financial Centres.
International Financial Centres, and many Regional Financial Centres, are full–service financial centres with direct access to large capital pools from banks, insurance companies, investment funds, and listed capital markets, and are major global cities. Offshore Financial Centres, and also some Regional Financial Centres, tend to specialise in tax-driven services, such as corporate tax planning tools, tax–neutral vehicles,[b] and shadow banking/securitisation, and can include smaller locations (e.g. Luxembourg), or city-states (e.g. Singapore). Since 2010, academics consider Offshore Financial Centres synonymous with tax havens.[c]
Roberts2008
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).New York remains the world's top financial center, pushing London further into second place as Brexit uncertainty undermines the UK capital and Asian centers catch up, a survey from consultants Duff & Phelps said on Monday.
h1
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).missing profits
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha>
tags or {{efn}}
templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}
template or {{notelist}}
template (see the help page).