Lugano, Geneva and Zurich: the third centre in comparison

Rankings and their limits

Comparisons between financial centres are usually made with the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI), published twice a year by the London think tank Z/Yen together with the China Development Institute in Shenzhen. The index combines quantitative indicators on business environment, human capital, infrastructure, financial sector development and reputation with assessments by financial professionals in an online survey. The 39th edition, published on 26 March 2026, researched 137 centres, of which 120 appear in the main index.¹ Lugano has been included in the index for several years, which in itself distinguishes it from most regional financial centres of its size.

The edition of March 2024 (GFCI 35) gives a clear picture of the relative positions of the Swiss centres and their neighbours. Geneva ranked seventh with 738 points, Zurich sixteenth with 729 points and Lugano thirty-fifth with 709 points. Milan followed in fifty-fifth place with 689 points, Liechtenstein in sixty-fourth with 680 and Monaco in eighty-ninth with 655.² The Ticino press noted that Lugano had gained 21 places within a year and that, together with Reykjavik, it was the European centre with the strongest progression in that edition, while it had risen from seventieth to fortieth place in the separate ranking for financial technology.³

Centre GFCI 35 rank Rating Geneva 7 738 Zurich 16 729 Lugano 35 709 Milan 55 689 Liechtenstein 64 680 Monaco 89 655

Table 4: Selected financial centres in the Global Financial Centres Index 35 (March 2024). Source: Z/Yen and China Development Institute, GFCI 35.⁴

The rankings must be read with care. A difference of thirty points between Geneva and Lugano is small on the GFCI scale, and the ranks of mid-sized centres move by twenty or thirty places between editions as a result of changes in the survey sample. The jump of Lugano between 2023 and 2024 may have owed something to the visibility of the city's Plan ₿ for Kryptowerte und Digital Assets, discussed in Chapter I.I, which raised the profile of Lugano among the international respondents of the survey. The index measures perceptions of competitiveness. It does not measure size, assets or employment, and it says nothing about the structural issues described in this chapter.

Size and structure compared

On the measures of size, Lugano is clearly the third Swiss centre and clearly smaller than the other two. The 5,218 full-time equivalents in Ticino's banks in 2023 represent about 5.7 per cent of Swiss bank employment, and the financial sector's share of 7.9 per cent of the cantonal GDP is below the national average of 9.4 per cent, which is itself pulled up by the much higher shares of Zurich and Geneva.⁵ In commodity trading Ticino accounted for 11.7 per cent of the Swiss core trading enterprises in 2023 and Geneva for 33.7 per cent.⁶ The comparison with Geneva, the subject of the companion volume, is instructive in other respects. Geneva's private banks are partnerships and listed groups of international reach, with clients from every continent, while Lugano's independent banks are smaller and more concentrated on Italian and Swiss clients. Geneva hosts international organizations and a large community of foreign residents who form a local client base. Lugano draws its clients from Lombardy and the rest of Italy and from the Italian-speaking world, and its residents include a growing number of Italian entrepreneurs and retirees who moved to Ticino, as Chapter E.V describes.

The relationship with Zurich is of a different kind. Zurich is the seat of UBS, of the largest Swiss private banks and of the Swiss stock exchange, and many decisions concerning banking in Ticino are taken there. Lugano functions in part as a regional market of the Zurich banks and in part as an independent centre. The independent Lugano banks, BancaStato, Raiffeisen and BPS (Suisse) belong to the second group. The Lugano offices of Julius Baer, J. Safra Sarasin, Vontobel and the other national private banks belong to the first. The balance between the two groups has shifted towards the regional offices of national groups since the end of BSI, which has reduced the number of senior decision-makers in Lugano.

Notes

1. Z/Yen, "The Global Financial Centres Index 39" (26 March 2026), https://www.zyen.com/publications/public-reports/the-global-financial-centres-index-39/; Mondo Visione, "Global Financial Centres Index 39" (26 March 2026), https://mondovisione.com/media-and-resources/news/global-financial-centres-index-39-top-four-financial-centres-clear-leaders-2026326/. The description of the methodology and of the partnership with the China Development Institute is general knowledge. ↩
2. Z/Yen and China Development Institute, The Global Financial Centres Index 35 (March 2024), https://en.cdi.org.cn/images/research/gfci/GFCI35.pdf (121 centres in the main index, 133 researched). ↩
3. laRegione, report on Lugano in the GFCI (2024), https://www.laregione.ch/cantone/luganese/1748336/servizi. ↩
4. GFCI 35 (above). ↩
5. USTAT, 12 Denaro e banche (March 2026, above), T. 12.3; Swiss Bankers Association, Banking Barometer 2026 (above); BAK Economics (May 2025, above). ↩
6. USTAT, 12 Denaro e banche (March 2026, above), T. 12.6. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.