Global Finance: GFCI Opts for Casablanca to Release Its 16th Report

The 16th Global Financial Centers Index (GFCI 16) report has been released on September 22nd in Casablanca, where a conference was hosted by Casablanca Finance City Authority. Casablanca ranked 51st in a field of 83 on the GFCI ranking.

It is also worth noting that Casablanca is ranked second among African financial centers, behind Johannesburg and ahead of Mauritius.

The Global Financial Centers Index is a ranking of the competitiveness of financial centers based on over 29,000 financial center assessments from an online questionnaire together with 105 external indices from organizations such as the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The choice of Casablanca for the release was not made randomly: last March, Casablanca entered the GFCI ranking, joining 83 leading financial centers around the globe.

The ranking, which is compiled and published twice a year since 2007 by the Z/Yen Group, a leading city of London think-tank, uses indices from five key areas: Talent pool, business environment, market access, infrastructure and general competitiveness.

The report is influential as multinational companies use it as a tool to help determine where to set up new offices.

Interestingly, Casablanca was among the most cited centers when international financial services professionals were asked which cities they believed will likely become more significant in the next few years.

According to Mark Yeandle, associate director of Z/Yen and author of the GFCI report: “The research we have conducted indicates that Casablanca has the capacity to grow in importance and reinforce its position as a hub for African financial services. They have a great team. They are investing in infrastructure, the regulatory environment and marketing and I wish them well in their endeavors.”

New York City is still holding the number one spot, before London, Hong Kong and Singapore. The other centers on the top ten are San Francisco, Tokyo, Zurich, Seoul, Boston and Washington DC.