Financial Capital – a strong term reserved for a financial hub that is not only strategically located but is populated with leading financial institutions, stock exchanges along with a higher density of public and private banks. There’s more! A financial hub also has trading and insurance companies and these places are highlighted with high rated infrastructure, communication, and commercial systems. Any financial hub is deeply integrated with a well placed legal and regulatory system, in addition to a stable political system.
Now a number of locations around the world fit these characteristics, New York City amongst them. New York City or NYC, however is considered as the financial CAPITAL of the world.
This has a lot to do with the large number of global centers in media, commerce, fashion, art, technology, research finance, education and entertainment being present here. So much so, NYC repeatedly tops ranks amongst the world’s finance centers in the Global Financial Centers Index (GFCI). Some of the largest companies in New York include IBM, PepsiCo,PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase, Pfizer and so many others.
Another boosting factor towards NYC becoming a financial capital is the fact that it was selected as a permanent headquarters for the United Nations.
A most optimized collection of factors have resulted in NYC achieving this status and consistently holding on to it. Believe it or not, aside from Economical Factors, other factors at play here are cultural, geographical, and financial. Let’s see what that means really.
Geographical Factors that contribute to its development are the ones that have made it a central hub for trading. So the Hudson liver and the cities ports are more suitable than those in other cities in similar locations. The first port of entrance that allowed immigrants was actually built in New York. The Canal system is also a contributing factor. The Erie Canal is connected to the Great Lake of North America and joins the Appalachian Mountains and the Hudson River.
Aside from Geographical factors, Economical & Finance factors also play a significant role. NYC’s extensive corporation base results in earning large amount of dollars every day (in the billions). Some of the corporations that we listed before and few others are a great source of this income. Furthermore, the city is a center for stock traders who can easily acquire loans from banks and use them to invest.
Other major hubs across the globe include London, Singapore and Hongkong. Each location capitalizes on its unique features. However, NYC’s unique collection of features boost it to another level altogether.