The Z/Yen Group, a financial think tank, said the City beat rival European centres, including Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam in its latest global financial centres index. The three rival cities 10th, 14th and 17th, respectively with the report stressing London performance "reflects confidence in the longer-term prospects for the centre".

       The report makes clear the City has successfully navigated its way through Brexit as well as COVID-19.

       Globally, London came second only to New York.

       It comes as the UK is hoping to strike a deal over the British financial sector’s role in Europe, which would allow for mutual recognition of financial service rules between London and Brussels.

       But despite a “memorandum of understanding” being provisionally agreed in March this year allowing for engagement on financial industry matters, no “equivalence” deal for the sector has been signed.

       Z/Yen chiefs said in the report: "The relatively strong performance of New York and London suggests that the financial services sectors in these cities managed to sustain their performance despite radical changes in working practices during the last 18 months."

       Michael Mainelli, executive chairman of Z/Yen, added: "We see two patterns in the results – confidence in the recovery of the North American and Western European economies following the shock of 2020; and a levelling off following the rapid rise of Asia/Pacific centres and their economic stability in the COVID-19 pandemic.

       "Competition remains tight.

       "Outside the top two centres, only five points on a 1,000 point scale separate the centres ranked third to eighth."

       FOR THE LATEST BREXIT NEWS, SEE BELOW: