Hong Kong has joined London and New York among the world’s top financial centers, with other Asian cities including Shanghai and Seoul also moving up the ranks, a survey said yesterday.
Hong Kong was third behind New York and first-placed London in the Global Financial Centres Index, which ranks 75 financial hubs based on surveys of professionals and criteria including business environment, market access and infrastructure.
“There remains no significant difference between London and New York [in the ratings]. Respondents continue to believe that these centres work together for mutual benefit,” the twice-annual report produced by London-based think tank Z/Yen Group said.
SELECT GROUP
“Hong Kong has joined London and New York as a genuinely global financial centre. Singapore may well join this trio soon,” it said.
Singapore placed fourth in the top 10 and is followed by Tokyo, Shanghai, Chicago, Zurich, Geneva and Sydney.
“The top four centres control a large proportion of financial transactions [over 70 percent of equity trading] ... [and] are likely to remain powerful financial centres for the foreseeable future,” the report said.
Asia “continues to exhibit enhanced competitiveness” with Shanghai breaking into the top 10 and Seoul cracking the top 25, the report said.
TAIPEI
Taipei was ranked 19 in the latest survey, up two places from the No. 21 spot in the previous survey.
NEWCOMERS
Respondents said the five finance centers “likely to become more significant in the next few years” are Shenzhen, Shanghai, Singapore, Seoul and Beijing.
Offshore finance centers such as the Cayman Islands and Malta and debt-laden Dubai had lost ground since the global financial crisis, the report said.
The survey polled 1,876 finance industry professionals.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the