Rediff

Mumbai, Jun 18: Driven by high trading volumes for equities and a good presence of global banking and financial services firms, Mumbai has grabbed a place in the world's top ten financial flow hubs list, beating Hong Kong and Beijing.

Mumbai has been ranked tenth among the world's biggest centres of commerce in terms of the financial flow volumes by a survey compiled by Mastercard Worldwide, which takes into consideration size of financial services network, besides equity, bond, derivatives and commodity contract transactions.

The list, lead by London and New York on the first two slots, include two other Asian cities -- Tokyo at fifth and Seoul at sixth positions, but does not have any representation from China -- another emerging Asian economy.

The other cities include Chicago, Frankfurt, Paris, Madrid and Milan.

"The Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA) region boasts of three cities which got included in the premier league -- Tokyo, Seoul and Mumbai due to their high trading volumes in bonds and equities," Mastercard Worldwide said in its first Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index study.

The list is, dominated by European cities with as many as five of the top ten positions on financial flow metrics.

According to Mastercard Worldwide, the financial flow dimension is an integration of five indicators -- financial services network, equity transactions, bond transactions, derivatives contracts traded and commodities contracts traded -- all carrying equal weightage.

The financial services network includes the presence and intensity of global banking institutions, insurance companies and global securities companies.

"These top-ranking centres of commerce conform to the network of global financial transactions and flow; although more detailed analysis would show specialisation between the centres in areas such as bonds, derivatives and equity trading," Mastercard said.

The MasterCard study also ranked the world's top cities in terms of their performance as overall centres of commerce in the global economy, where Mumbai was at 45th position, while London, New York and Tokyo stood at the top three positions.

China got represented by three cities in the top-50 list, with Hong Kong grabbing the fifth position, Shanghai at 32nd and Beijing at 46th position. However, Mumbai was the only Indian city on the list.

This index consisted of six dimensions  -- legal and political framework, economic stability, ease of doing business, financial flow, business centre and knowledge creation and information flow.

Mumbai, however, did not figure in the individual top-ten list on the five metrics other than financial flow.

Earlier last year, a committee was set up to draw an outline to turn Mumbai into a global finance centre. The committee submitted its report in April this year and suggested fixing a 2007-2020 timeframe for the city's evolution from India's financial hub to an International Financial Centre.