UK Dominates Rest of Europe as Financial Center Despite Brexit

A new report by the think-tank New Financial named Britain "the dominant European financial center by far," overshadowed on the global scale by the US.

UK's overall score, according to the index, is 40, which is more than 50% higher than Luxembourg and nearly double that of Germany or France.

"Our rankings highlight the dominance of the UK as a financial centre in Europe in terms of the value of financial activity. On raw financial metrics the UK is nearly three times larger than France or Germany. In terms of domestic activity, the UK's score of 19 out of 100 is significantly higher than France (12) and Germany (11). When it comes to international activity — which is most at risk from Brexit — the UK is even more dominant: its score of 46 out of 100 is nearly double that of Luxembourg and more than three times higher than Germany (13) and France (11)," the think-tank reported.

The researchers believe that despite the uncertainty around the Brexit process, Britain still holds top position, with "no other European financial center is going to displace London anytime soon."

The UK Office of National Statistics August report stressed that abstracting from the quarterly movements, the underlying trend in Britain's real GDP was one of slowing growth.

One of the new British 10 pound notes is posed for photographs outside the Bank of England in the City of London, Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017.

The New Financial think-tank named China the "rising star" of the financial world, treading ahead of Japan and Hong Kong.

"This is mainly because China has a big domestic financial sector, which compensates for its relatively weak performance as an international financial center and low score in non-financial metrics. Asian countries account for four of the top 10 financial centers," the report said.

A man wearing a respiratory protection mask walks toward an office building during the smog after a red alert was issued for heavy air pollution in Beijing's central business district, China, December 21, 2016

When it comes to the non-financial sector metrics such as quality of life, infrastructure and human capital, the otherwise leading US drops down to the 16th place, while smaller states, such as the Switzerland, Luxembourg and Ireland, replace it at the top.

The New Financial international financial centers index has analyzed 48 countries across 42 different metrics.