Innovative web technology allows us to create simultaneous history along with current facts. The use of Twitter, cell cameras, You Tube, real-time streaming financial data, along with web-based continuous polls give brand new connotations to the term, "Living in the Now!" Current information polling in the form of indexes and surveys is used to focus marketing for trends, products, services, public opinion, and politics.

The Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) developed by Z/Yen Group Ltd. for the City of London www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/GFCI is a prime example of simultaneous data building and marketing. It was built to reflect close to real-time opinions of evolution in the long-term competitiveness of financial centers. In the foreword of GFCI5 of March 2009, it states: "this index monitors the perspectives of market practitioners and regulators located across the world on the position of their own and other international financial centres. Thus, the model offers insight into the changes in perception of financial centres' competitiveness over time and how these relate to underlying data."

The GFCI5 report is an innovative, audacious, yet incredibly subtle piece of marketing driven by - still - the leading long-established London Financial Centre.

Methodology: The GFCI index provides ratings for 62 financial centres calculated by a "factor assessment model" that uses two distinct input sets:

1 Instrumental Factors. Objective evidence of competitiveness is culled from a wide variety of comparable sources and reputable organisations, ranging from Human Development Index, http://hdr.undp.org; Personal Safety Index, www.mercerhr.com; Ease of Doing Business, The World Bank (2008), www.doingbusiness.org/economyrankings; Operational Risk Rating, www.viewswire.com; Opacity Index, Milken Institute, www.milkininstitute.org/publications; Index of Economic Freedom, the Heritage Foundation, www.heritage.org/index/countries.cfm; Political Risk Index, http://maps.maplecroft.com; International Finance Diversity Index, Oxford Centre for the Environment, http://papers.ssrn.com and many others. Evidence about fair and just business environments are drawn from corruption perceptions and opacity indexes.

2 Respondents' knowledge of financial centres. Since 2007, responses have been collected from a continuously running online questionnaire that has provided a wealth of data to mine for current and future forecasting. The number of respondents by industry sector and size of organisation is diversified and very broad. While it might be assumed that London participants would dominate out of a group of 1,500, who generated 26,629 financial centre assessments, the City only contributed about 30 percent. There were almost an equal number from offshore centre responses as well, along with contributors from North America and global firms.

Methodology. The instrumental factors used for assessment are delineated into five key areas of competitiveness comparison indices:

• Business environment - regulatory environment, rule of law, trust and taxation.

• People - quality and availability of people and lifestyle.

• Infrastructure - transport links, proximity and airports.

• Market access - cluster of professional advisors and international market access.

• General competitiveness - reputation and marketing.

These factors are then ranked by relative importance of competitiveness as displayed in the accompanying chart of Relative Competitiveness Factors.

Placements in the top ten by categories did not include Bermuda. While all centres fell in ranking due to the uncertainty among financial service professionals and volatile markets, the index is a predictor tool for a sense of what centres will prosper in the future. In all of the categories by industry sector, asset management, banking, government & regulatory, insurance and professional services, London and New York still dominate at number 1 and 2, followed variously by Singapore, HongKong, Zurich, Chicago, Geneva, Jersey, Guernsey, Dublin, Luxembourg. Bermuda is listed in eighth place for insurance only.

Bermuda Scorecard: The Island ranks 27th out of 62 financial centres, below Guernsey (12), Jersey (13), the Isle of Man (18) and Cayman (22). The Channel Islands all increased in ratings strength from six months ago while Cayman dropped 11 points, but Bermuda fell 22 points. Some comfort can be derived in seeing the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands even further dropped down the food chain. The ratings of offshore financial centres reflect flight to safety, corruption perceptions, global competitiveness, and economic sentiment along with other instrumental factors listed in the report. On the perceived competitiveness chart, Bermuda's score shifted away from stability to a more unpredictable competitive environment. Under the reputational advantage chart in Table 21, again the Channel Islands, Geneva, Luxembourg, and Dublin make the top 20, but our island does not.

Are 1,500 professionals right? We do not know, but we still have much work to do. There is only one way to proceed in finance, as in life - conduct yourself and your affairs with fairness, respect for all, and adhering to the highest ethical standards.

Anyone interested in reading the whole report of March 2009 can logon to the website www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/GFCI and download for free the entire 52-page report. The authors of the report are Mark Yeandle, Jeremy Horne, Nick Danev, and Alexander Knapp of the Z/Yen Group.

All financial centre professionals from investments, commercial & retail banking, insurance, asset management, legal and accounting services, trade associations, regulatory bodies/central banks, governments and other are encouraged to contribute to this financial centre database, from Bermuda or elsewhere. This is your chance to show your support, or disenchantment, with where you currently work and live.

While it is free, you will have to identify yourself, your job title/areas of responsibility and the name of your work organisation. This may be a bit off-putting for some, but given the seriousness of global financial competition for every investor dollar, any input has to be from documented verifiable ethical sources.

Global Financial Centres Index 5 - The Relative Importance of Competitiveness Factors

Competitiveness Factors Rank

The availability of skilled personnel 1

The regulatory environment 2

Access to international financial markets 3

The availability of business infrastructure 4

Access to customers 5

A fair and just business environment 6

Government responsiveness 7

The corporate tax regime 8

Operational costs 9

Access to suppliers of professional services 10

Quality of life 11

Culture and language 12

Quality/availability of commercial property 13

The personal tax regime 14

Martha Harris Myron CPA -NH1929, CFP® - 67184 (US licenses) TEP - Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners specialises in comprehensive financial solutions and investment advisory services for international and domestic private clients and their families, business owners, endowments and trusts. Confidential email can be directed to martha.myron@gmail.com">martha.myron@gmail.com

The article expresses the opinion of the author alone. Under no circumstances is the content of this article to be taken as specific individual investment advice, nor as a recommendation to buy/sell any investment product. The Editor of the Royal Gazette has final right of approval over headlines, content, and length/brevity of article.