London and New York are still the world’s leading cities for banking and other financial services, but Hong Kong is breathing down their necks, according to the latest Global Financial Centres Index.

The twice-yearly ranking of 75 world cities by Z/Yen Group think-tank is based both on surveys of industry professionals and objective factors such as office rental rates, airport satisfaction and transport. In previous versions, London has generally led the pack, followed closely by New York, with other cities lagging well behind.

But GFCI 8, which will be released on Monday, found that London and New York are statistically indistinguishable, with 772 and 770 points, respectively, out of a possible 1,000, and Hong Kong is just 10 points behind, at 760. Hong Kong was 81 points behind the other two as recently as March 2009.