Singapore has attracted the largest levels of foreign direct investment (FDI) in its financial sector over the past year, with just under $1.5bn spent on 49 projects – a capital investment not as high as the previous year but that still secured the Asian financial centre the global lead in this ranking. Of the 20 largest individual projects worldwide, six came out of Singapore, including the biggest deal of the year. This was HSBC’s $788m investment to expand its Singaporean operations and workforce by about 1000 people.
Interestingly, the second largest investment was in Geneva – which occupies eighth place in the ranking, up from 39th last year – where JPMorgan spent $221m to increase its wealth management operations in the Swiss centre, as the bank planned to hire 400 new employees in its wealth management, commodities trading and industry financing divisions. This will bring total staff of JPMorgan’s private banking unit in Geneva to 1000 by the end of 2012.