Stock Talk | Hong Kong on track to become top financial centre

Hong Kong is expected to overtake London by 2015 and surpass New York by 2016 to become the world’s biggest financial centre, reflecting a massive shift in the balance of power in the financial world and a remarkable turnaround since the financial crisis.

By 2015, the number of financial service jobs in Hong Kong, which was less than half the London number in 2005 – will have overtaken  London to reach 248,000, according to the lastest report released by the London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). By 2015, London would have 237,000 financial sector jobs, the report said.

Hong Kong will also challenge New York, the US financial hub which only this year dethroned London as the world’s largest financial centre. By 2016, Hong Kong will have 262,043 financial professionals, compared with 252,543 in the Big Apple. 

Between 2008 – the year in which the global financial crisis set in – and 2012, the number of financial jobs has grown 12 per cent in Hong Kong, compared with a 23 per cent decline in London and a 10 per cent fall in New York over the same period.    

Western cities are losing their lead because of “the more dynamic growth of the Asian economies, which has created a booming demand for financial services”, the report said.

‘Much of this shift is inevitable as a result of the world’s changing economic geography. And Hong Kong will be boosted by the internationalisation of the renminbi," the report said.