Despite well-publicised retrenchment in commodities finance by some European banks, merchant trading companies are still able to find sources of funding expand their business lines.

Needing to raise €3bn in Tier 2 capital at short notice, reborn Dutch bank ABN Amro broke new ground in the Singapore dollar market.

With balance sheet clean-ups continuing in Europe and the US, banks in emerging markets have grabbed the opportunity to forge stronger relationships with local commodity producers. 

With the recent Libor scandal failing to shake asset managers' confidence in London, emerging centres will have to work hard if they are to overtake the UK capital as the world's leading asset management centre.

As the economic scales tip in favour of emerging economies – particularly those in Asia – it seems increasingly likely that one of the region's leading financial centres will steal the status of global wealth management capital from Switzerland. The question is, which city will it be?

Singapore and Hong Kong continue to attract the highest levels of foreign direct investment among Asian international finance centres. But there is change afoot elsewhere, with increasing levels of investment in Beijing causing it to replace Shanghai as the third most attractive Asian IFC for FDI.

As Asia's population grows richer, the continent's wealth management industry is struggling to keep pace and meet the needs of the ever-expanding number of high-net-worth individuals. Gone are the days of simply poaching such staff, and many banks are now focusing on producing home-grown talent.

The Asian city state of Singapore attracted more foreign investment in its financial sector than any other IFC in the world over the past year. Geneva, Edinburgh and Glasgow were notable risers in the ranking, while troubled Madrid lost significant ground.

Singapore’s strategic location in Asia is proving a boon to the city state’s transaction bankers, particularly as they seek to capture banking business from the world’s changing trade flows.