IRELAND HAS FALLEN four places in the latest World Economic Forum index on financial development, from 22nd place to 18th.
The WEC’s Financial Development Report 2011 ranks Ireland highly for business and institutional environments, but cites the country’s “very unstable” banking sector as a reason for a financial stability ranking of 57 out of 60.
While Ireland ranked 11th for financial access, it is noted that such access is uneven: it was ranked 7th for retail access but 34th for commercial access to financial services.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong claimed the number one spot for financial development – making it the first time in the report’s history that neither the United States or United Kingdom have been in first place.
According to the WEF, the top ten countries for financial development are:
1. Hong Kong
2. United States
3. United Kingdom
4. Singapore
5. Australia
6. Canada
7. Netherlands
8. Japan
9. Switzerland
10. Norway
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh received low rankings, coming in at 37th, 54th and 56th respectively.
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