Companies keep choosing New York over London for their IPOs. ARM, Wise and Flutter have already made the move. Yet the same city still handles nearly 38% of the world’s foreign-exchange trading and almost half of all over-the-counter interest-rate derivatives. The data tells a more complicated story than simple decline.
London remains one of the world’s leading financial centres
Despite concerns about its future, London continues to rank among the top financial hubs globally.
The latest Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 39), produced by Z/Yen and Long Finance, ranked London as the second-largest financial centre in the world, narrowly behind New York.
The UK capital remained the only European city inside the top ten.
London’s position is supported by decades of financial infrastructure, including a large concentration of banks, insurers, asset managers and professional services firms.
Its legal system, international workforce and location between Asian and US trading hours have also helped maintain its importance.
However, rankings alone do not tell the full story.
A financial centre can remain highly competitive while still facing challenges in specific areas.
For London, that challenge is increasingly visible in its equity markets.
The hidden strength of London’s financial markets
The debate over London’s future almost always starts with stock listings. Yet the City’s real weight lies elsewhere: in the vast wholesale markets where banks, pension funds, hedge funds and multinationals manage currencies, interest-rate risk and capital every day.
These markets rarely make headlines. They matter more. A company hedging against sterling swings, a pension fund protecting itself from rate moves, a bank reducing exposure: much of that activity still runs through London.
The numbers confirm it. UK trading desks handled 37.8% of global foreign-exchange turnover in the latest BIS survey, keeping Britain the world’s largest FX centre. The same data shows the UK accounting for 49.6% of over-the-counter interest-rate derivatives, up from 42.9% in 2022. These contracts let institutions lock in prices and manage uncertainty. They also keep London at the centre of global finance long after the IPO stories fade.
Why companies are looking elsewhere
While London remains strong in wholesale markets, its problems in public markets are harder to ignore.
A successful financial centre needs to attract companies, investors and capital. This is where the London Stock Exchange has struggled.
The most symbolic example was ARM.
The British semiconductor designer chose Nasdaq in the United States for its 2023 IPO, despite its strong links to the UK.
That decision reflected a wider pattern. Many high-growth companies believe US markets offer deeper pools of capital and higher valuations. The numbers back that view. In 2025, London IPOs raised just £1.9 billion. US exchanges raised more than $40 billion.
For companies preparing to go public, the choice is less about where they are based and more about where investors will value them most highly. A higher valuation lets them raise more capital while selling fewer shares, making the exchange decision a significant financial one.
Other companies have followed. Wise shifted its primary listing to the United States, Flutter moved its main listing to New York, and AstraZeneca has repeatedly highlighted the importance of US markets for reaching international investors.
The listings drift is not happening in isolation. Higher taxes, tighter regulation and growing doubts about London’s ability to keep top international talent have all fed the sense that the City is becoming a harder place to build a global company.
Is the listings problem a wider warning sign?
The decline in IPO activity matters because stock markets play an important role in helping companies grow.
A strong market attracts companies.
Successful companies attract investors.
More investors create deeper markets.
When that cycle weakens, rebuilding confidence becomes difficult.
This is why some analysts argue London’s listings problem reflects a deeper issue.
Competition from New York, Singapore and other financial centres continue to increase, while Brexit created uncertainty around parts of the UK’s relationship with European financial markets.
The risk is that weakness in one area of finance eventually affects the wider system.
Why London’s decline story is incomplete
However, focusing only on IPO numbers presents an incomplete picture.
London Stock Exchange Group chief executive David Schwimmer has argued that measuring a financial market only through listings ignores the wider question of how much capital companies can access.
A company choosing New York for an IPO does not necessarily mean it has abandoned London’s financial ecosystem.
Financial centres are built on networks, not just individual transactions.
This is why London can face genuine problems in equity markets while continuing to dominate important parts of global finance.
The future of the City
The City of London is facing a period of change.
Its position as a destination for major stock listings has weakened, and attracting the next generation of global companies will remain a major challenge.
The challenge now is whether the City can strengthen the areas where it has lost ground while protecting the advantages that have made it one of the world’s leading financial centres.
London may no longer dominate every part of global finance.
But the data suggests it remains far from losing its place at the centre of it.
Author: Vagner Dos Santos Trindade
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