London has stolen a march on Wall Street, seizing the lion's share of fast-growing markets, and generating soaring export earnings for UK plc. The Observer

Despite fears that the capital would lose out as a global financial centre to Frankfurt or New York, the City has become increasingly dominant in a number of markets, including cross-border lending - where it has twice the market share of the US - and derivatives trading, which is worth an average of $1 trillion a day in London, and less than $400bn in New York.

Export earnings from the financial sector were worth almost 2 per cent of the UK's GDP last year, against less than 1.2 per cent in the US, according to analysis by the International Monetary Fund.

The heavy weight of the City in the UK's economy is testament to its success in attracting investment.