According to estimates, the number of people employed in the financial sector in Hong Kong will surpass those in the British capital, London in the next three years.

A latest round of job cuts will push London to third place in the global rankings of financial centers. Hong Kong is expected to employ 248,000 financial services workers by 2015 compared to 237,000 in London. This indicates a major shift in the global financial industry from west to the east.

Until recently, the number of total financial workers in London was twice than that of those in Hong Kong, according to figures from the Centre for Economics and Business Research. The shift has happened amid a global financial crisis.

London was earlier surpassed by New York as the world's largest financial centre. However, Hong Kong is expected to surpass New York by the year 2016. The CEBR has said that the British capital is losing its position because of government's "short-sighted over-regulation, penal taxation and banker bashing" and also due to a general shift in global business towards the east.

Douglas McWilliams, chief executive of CEBR said, "I estimate that government revenues from the City in the current financial year are likely to be about £40bn compared with the £70bn which it received in 2007/08 at the peak of the cycle."