New York retains lead but just a singular rating point separates two cities.

New York and London retained their positions as first and second place for the global ranking of financial centres, according to the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI).

New York has been in pole position since the 24th edition of the index, which was published in September 2018. London has since closed the gap in the ratings, with a singular rating point between the two.

This year’s edition said the four leading international financial centres, which included Hong Kong and Singapore as third and fourth, are locked in intense competition. Each was separated by only one point on the 1,000-point scale.

The index also showed no change in the top ten centres, with shifts confined to score adjustments rather than ranking positions – San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Seoul are unchanged in fifth to tenth positions, it said.

In the top 20 centres, Dubai is up one place to 11th position and Frankfurt down one place to 12th. Tokyo and Zurich entered the top 20, replacing Beijing and Amsterdam.

The rating for almost all centres improved very slightly, with the average rating across all centres up 0.6%. The largest increase in average ratings was in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, at 1.36% and the lowest was in the Middle East & Africa, where average ratings rose by 0.22%.

The 38th edition of the index was jointly published by two leading think-tanks: Z/Yen in the UK and the China Development Institute in Shenzhen. It evaluates the competitiveness of 121 financial centres across the globe in different dimensions.