Financial centre of the 19th century. After 1870, Berlin and New York grew to become major financial centres mainly serving their national economies. An array of smaller international financial centers found market niches, such as Amsterdam, Brussels, Zurich, and Geneva. London remained the leading international financial center in the four decades leading up to World War I. Since then, London and New York have developed leading positions in different activities and some non-Western financial centres have grown in prominence, notably Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. In Asia, Tokyo emerged as a major financial centre in the 1980s as the Japanese economy became
Independent Financial Centre of the Americas all banking transactions to increase the speed and cost efficiency for institutions and their clients. The Centre will house a settlement and clearing centre, called LAIFEX: the Latin American International Financial Exchange. LAIFEX will facilitate primary and secondary debt trading both regionally and globally. It is a private exchange where members can apply for seats. The custom-built IT platform for the Centre could also support a regional stock exchange. The rationale behind the Clearing (finance) and settlement centre is the USD 2.94 trillion of Latin American and Caribbean debt traded globally in 2004, accounting for 63.2% of total emerging markets