'Mumbai tops list of cities offering financial services'

Among important centres of commerce in emerging countries, India's financial capital Mumbai offers the best financial services environment, ahead of Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur, say a MasterCard survey.

"In terms of financial services environment, Mumbai ranks one among all 65 cities covered by the index. It received the top score in the dimension of banking services and currency exchange regulations, and ranked highly on the volume of financial services traded," it said.

Other important financial services providers among the emerging economies include Johannesburg, Sao Paulo, Moscow and Bangkok.

In addition to Mumbai, seven other cities including New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune and Coimbatore found mention in the 65 important commercial centres in the emerging markets.

As against eight cities from India, 15 Chinese cities figured in the MasterCard survey.

Among the centres providing commercial connectivity, New Delhi was ranked sixth, below Shanghai, Bangkok, Moscow and Sao Paulo.

In terms of overall ranking, Shanghai tops the list followed by Beijing and Budapest, while Mumbai was ranked at 19th place and New Delhi at 28th position.

Among the other Indian cities, Bangalore was placed at 38th position, followed by Chennai (39), Hyderabad (46), Kolkata (48), Pune (52) and Coimbatore (54).

The MasterCard ranking is based on eight parameters including economic and commercial environment, economic growth and development, business environment, financial services environment, commercial connectivity, education and IT connectivity, quality of urban life and risk and security.