Glasgow drops down finance league

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Glasgow has plummeted down a league table of world financial centres, with Edinburgh also falling.

East Asian cities rose rapidly in the wake of the credit crunch, while London and New York held the top spots in the latest Global Financial Centres Index.

Glasgow fell 18 places to number 49 in a table of 75 cities around the world.

Edinburgh dropped seven places to number 27. The previous index had put it in the same category as Paris and Washington DC.

But the latest rankings see it lag behind the Cayman Islands, the Isle of Man, Taipei and Dublin.

The Irish capital has also taken a tumble 13 places down the table.

Gibraltar is the only other location to fall as fast as Glasgow in the league table.

The rankings now put Glasgow behind the Bahamas, Milan and Vienna on the survey of finance professionals allied to competitiveness indicators.

Five Asian cities have pushed into the top 10 since the fifth index was published last March.

Shenzhen has been placed at number five, with Shanghai and Beijing rising the fastest, to positions 10 and 22.

The assessments are based on people and skills, business environment, property factors with other infrastructure, market access and general competitiveness.

In addition, there is an online questionnaire giving 1,800 finance professionals' assessments of finance centres with which they are familiar.

The index began in 2007, and is sponsored by the City of London.