Seoul City Ranks 11th Overall with 3 Consecutive Years of Growth in International Financial Competitiveness

Global Major Cities Financial Competitiveness, GFCI 11th Place... Number 1 in Future Growth Potential

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul announced on the 22nd that it ranked 11th out of 128 cities in the ‘Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 32),’ a representative index measuring the financial competitiveness of major global cities based on corporate environment, financial industry development, infrastructure, human resources, and city reputation. This marks the third consecutive year of rising trends, surpassing Tokyo (16th) and Chicago (12th).

On this day, the UK consulting firm Z/Yen announced the ‘Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 32),’ evaluated across 128 financial cities worldwide, via a live online webinar from London. This result, a one-rank increase from 12th place announced in March last year, reflects a continuous rise in ranking since the full-scale promotion of policies to revitalize the Yeouido financial hub, with expectations of entering the top 10.

The GFCI is an index evaluating international financial competitiveness, published twice annually in March and September since 2007 by the UK consulting group Z/Yen. Among the top-ranking cities, the advanced financial city New York ranked 1st, London 2nd, followed by Singapore (3rd) and Hong Kong (4th).

Seoul achieved remarkable results by entering the ranking in all five evaluation categories. It received consistently high evaluations in human resources, corporate environment, financial industry development, infrastructure, and city reputation. Notably, the human resources and corporate environment categories, which had previously been outside the top 15, entered the top 10 this time.

Especially in the potential for future growth category, Seoul ranked 1st among 128 cities for the first time, receiving high evaluations for growth potential. The entry into the ranking for corporate environment and human resources indicators, which had remained outside the top 15, reflects Seoul’s continuous proposals to the government for improving unreasonable financial regulations and the 52-hour workweek system, along with the government’s strong commitment to regulatory innovation, according to Seoul city officials.

However, despite Seoul’s focused nurturing of digital financial industries such as fintech, the ‘fintech ranking’ remained unchanged at 14th compared to the previous announcement. Hwang Bo-yeon, Director of Seoul’s Economic Policy Office, said, “It is encouraging that Seoul has been confirmed as a sufficiently attractive financial city through this GFCI ranking announcement. To compete with major overseas financial cities that are advancing strong digital financial policies, Yeouido must be developed as a digital financial special zone, which requires the government’s support through financial regulatory innovation that meets global standards.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.