International Banking And Financial Centers

The development of international financial centers (IFCs) has paralleled the rapid expansion of international banking and Eurocurrency activities. During the past decade and a half, the international banking and financial markets have experienced phenomenal growth along with the parallel expansion of IFCs. The size of the Eurocurrency market grew from $110 billion in 1970 to over $4,000 billion by 1987, while the total international assets of all banking institutions rose from $130 billion to $4,800 billion during the same period. Some of the preeminent IFCs are playing a major role in the international financial markets, as demonstrated by the size of their international assets: Bahamas ($144 billion), Cayman Islands ($174 billion), Singapore ($150 billion), Hong Kong ($130 billion), Bahrain ($46 billion), and Panama ($32 billion). The patterns of Euroborrowing and Eurolending activities in these IFCs have been undergoing major changes. These changes came about as a result of the introduction of the floating exchange rate system in 1973, recent financial deregulation, internationalization of the financial markets, securitization of financial assets and liabilities, and global financial innovations. Since the pioneering work of Kindleberger in 1974 on the formation of financial centers, there has not been a comprehensive study to reflect the recent developments, trends and the mystique that have surrounded the IFCs' functions and operations in the international money and capital markets.

As well as marking the tenth anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the consequent unleashing of the global financial crisis, 2018 is also the year of negotiations on the terms of the UK's exit from the European Union. Within a decade the banking world has witnessed two epochal events with potential to redraw the map of international financial centres: but how much has this map actually changed since 2008, and how is it likely to change in the near future? International Financial Centres after the Global Financial Crisis and Brexit gathers together leading economic historians, geographers, and other social scientists to focus on the post-2008 developments in key international financial centres. It focuses on the shifting hierarchies of New York, London, Paris, Geneva, Zurich, Frankfurt, Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, and Tokyo to question whether Asian financial centres have taken advantage of the crisis in the West. It also examines the medium-effects of the crisis, the level of regulation, and the rise of new technology (fintech). By exploring these crucial changes, it questions whether shifts in the financial industry and the global landscape will render these centres unnecessary for the functioning of the global economy, and which cities are likely to emerge as hubs of new financial technology.

"This is a comparison between London and Paris as international financial centres since the late nineteenth century. The chapters include both archive-based and synthetic surveys. It also gives insights into: the political economy of Britain and France in the twentieth century, and the history of international financial centres"--Provided by publisher.

This study reviews previous research on this topic, examines the different sets of terminology used by other authors, and then presents a proposal for future uses of the terms.

Essay from the year 2017 in the subject Economics - Finance, grade: MA, Yale University, language: English, abstract: International Finance Center (IFC) are an integral part of the modern international financial economy. One of its basic components is the availability of developed national financial markets, actively interacting with similar markets in other countries. As an example, the United States can lead the UK, Japan, in economic development which play an important role the financial markets, and the major cities of these countries (New York, London, Tokyo), are the major international financial centers. Cities can be seen as the gateway to the global economy. They are important for the functioning of both national and global economy, since they are concentrated huge financial, informational and intellectual resources, based most of the major industrial, commercial, financial and service companies, specialized credit and financial institutions and banks. In addition to traditional MFC in the last decades of the 20th century a number of new financial centers competing for the role of international. The acceleration of globalization and especially its financial component, led to an increase in strength and influence regional financial centers, in particular, such as Hong Kong (Hong Kong). The financial market of China, which is traditionally considered to be emerging financial markets have long been a mature international financial centers that have an impact not only on the regional economy, but also in the distribution of global capital flows. The study of the functioning of the MFC, their development trends is the most important area for the understanding of the new global economy, its characteristics and movement mechanisms. At the same time identifying new trends in the development of Asian financial centers, particularly their inclusion in the competition for international corporations have mastered the financial market, is both scientific and practical interest. This makes it possible to identify local features of financial globalization as a result of the connection and the active development of the Asia-Pacific Economic Space with new financial centers, show their role, prospects and competitiveness in the global economy. Of particular importance is the study of the development of Chinese financial market, especially given the fact that the IMF has recognized the yuan a freely usable currency, reflecting the expanding role of China in world trade, a significant increase in the use of the yuan in the international scale and the growth of operations with it.

This note documents and assesses the role of small financial centers in the international financial system using a newly-assembled dataset. It presents estimates of the foreign asset and liability positions for a number of the most important small financial centers, and places these into context by calculating the importance of these locations in the global aggregate of cross-border investment positions. It also reports some information on bilateral cross-border investment patterns, highlighting which countries engage in financial trade with small financial centers.