Shanghai has been ranked as one of the top five financial centers in the world after it overtook Tokyo to move into fifth place, according to the latest edition of the Global Financial Centers Index, co-published by the China Development Institute in Shenzhen and Z/Yen Partners, a London-based market research company. Not for the first time, New York took first place in the index, 7 points ahead of London. Hong Kong was only 4 points behind London in third, and Singapore remained in fourth place. Toronto rose 27 points and gained four places to seventh. Zurich, Beijing and Frankfurt remained in the top 10, the findings showed. Among the top five centers, gaps are now being narrowed between runners-up and leaders. For example, Shanghai was 193 points behind the leader when the index was published for the first time in 2007, but now it is just 17 points behind.

A total of nine Chinese cities were on the list this time, as a number of second-tier cities such as Chengdu in Sichuan province and Dalian in Liaoning province are rising in importance. The financial center list has grown from 100 to 102 this year and the latest result showed a continued shift to the Asia-Pacific, as the top eight places in the region are now in the top 15 in the whole index.

Local government officials said Shanghai has made great headway in serving the country’s financial reforms, and the city has further consolidated its position as a financial center. Nine of the world’s 10 biggest asset managers opened offices in the city’s Lujiazui financial area, and 51 internationally renowned asset management companies set up 69 wholly foreign-owned firms in Shanghai in 2018. Next, the city will strive to enhance the degree of its financial internationalization and its global influence, attract more overseas investors to participate in its financial market, further optimize its business climate for the financial sector, and improve its capabilities for financial supervision and risk prevention, the Shanghai Daily reports.