Globalization and Local Clustering in Financial Services

Globalization has had a profound effect on the world of finance and banking over the past two decades. This book explores the interrelationships between factors contributing to the globalization of corporate financial services and the local geographical clustering of multinational banks within world financial centres. While globalization is said to have increased the hypermobility of financial flows, lessening the importance of place and space, banks have nevertheless remained spatially-clustered within discrete financial districts within the world’s financial centres. Using Porter’s framework on business clusters and embellishing it with concepts drawn from a range of disciplines, financial clustering is examined through a series of detailed financial case studies, to illustrate how global and local forces interact to create unique patterns of financial clustering. From a public policy perspective, this globalization-local clustering theme ties into broader issues concerning how national and urban governments can attract and retain foreign direct investment to sustain local economic growth and development in the face of global competition. It concludes by arguing that geography still matters despite globalization tendencies of financial services, and that governments can influence the business environment to facilitate the development of a successful financial services sector.