Having worked in both the London and New York financial communities, I am often asked to compare the Square Mile with Wall Street. Which city will attain the position of global financial centre in the years ahead?

I always find this a difficult question to answer because the Square Mile, in effect, reaches across 13 time zones from Dublin to Vladivostok, as does the span of Wall Street. In addition, liquidity and the movement of capital around the world have become so ubiquitous and pervasive that it is hard to know where London or New York begins and where Tokyo, Shanghai or Hong Kong leaves off. I am not even sure it matters to the sophisticated global market participants where the epicentre is located.