Either Hong Kong, Shanghai or Singapore will replace London as the world’s most dominant financial centres by 2022, claimed a survey of 450 U.K.-based bankers on Sunday, with nearly 31 percent of the respondents choosing Singapore as their most favoured location to work.
The poll, conducted by recruitment firm Astbury Marsden, indicated that the Western financial centres, namely New York and London, were quickly losing their appeal to investment bankers, with a deluge of financial restrictions expected in the near future due to a series of recent high-profile banking scandals.
"Financial centres in the West have taken a real battering since the start of the financial crisis," said Astbury Marsden’s Chief Operating Officer Mark Cameron, as cited by Reuters.
"A fast growing, low tax and bank friendly environment like Singapore stands as a perfect antidote to the comparatively high tax and anti-banker sentiment of London and New York," he added.