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 debt traded worldwide that year. Currently, there is no central platform to clear and settle locally denominated trades in Latin American debt. While competition for clearing and settlement comes from the over-the-counter market between banks, a private banking centre would compete with neighbouring Caribbean centres such as the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands that have built up strength in this area over the past 25 years. However, Mr. Bucher aims to steal a march on rivals by capitalising on recent international concern about regulation of offshore financial centres. (See also; Latin American debt crisis) The Centre will embrace positive regulation