Frankfurt Confirmed as the EU’s Leading Financial Center
The city in Hessen is now officially Continental Europe’s most important financial center. Find out more about the ranking - and what impact the "Brexit effect" has.
Frankfurt came ninth in the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) ranking, making it one of the world’s top ten financial centers and outstripping other cities in Europe such as Zürich, Geneva, Paris, and Luxembourg.
One reason for this is thought to be the “Brexit effect”: A large number of banks have migrated to Frankfurt since the British voted to leave the EU, so that today roughly 200 German and foreign banks are now based in the city. According to Germany’s financial supervisory authority BaFin, more than 60 licenses have been granted to financial institutions and insurance groups wanting to relocate their headquarters from London to Germany – with most of them aiming to set up in Frankfurt. In addition, international institutions such as J.P. Morgan have moved assets here in order to be near to the ECB and ensure unfettered access to the market in the EU.
The GFCI study is performed every six months by consultancy Z/Yen Group. A total of 126 financial centers around the world were examined for criteria such as infrastructure, the rule of law, the availability of qualified staff, and quality of life.
Learn more about Germany’s traditional financial capital: Financial Sector / Invest in Hessen (invest-in-hessen.com)