London has been named as the world's leading commercial hub, overtaking New York as the premier financial centre.
New research from MasterCard Worldwide places the UK capital at the top of a list of the world's 50 most influential cities on the global economy.
The panel of leading economists that compiled today's index praised London's flexibility as an operating environment for business and its strong global financial connections, as well as noting its "exceptionally high levels of international trade, travel and conferences".
But while London's overall commerce score is "significantly higher" than any other European city, it is Britain's only representative on the list.
"The trend of commerce becoming more knowledge-driven and less tangible has actually elevated the role of today's cities, positioning them as the hubs of complex circuits that fuel the globalised economy and provide connections through which true global commerce takes place," commented MasterCard Worldwide economic adviser Dr Yuwa Hedrick-Wong.
"This research provides valuable insight into the cities that sit at the centre of global commerce as well as the factors that are fuelling commerce in each."
Today's commerce index, which ranked cities in terms of their legal and political framework, economic stability, ease of doing business, financial flow, business centre, knowledge and creation and information flow, includes four cities from the Asia Pacific region in its top ten.
MasterCard's global commerce centres
1 London 2 New York 3 Tokyo 4 Chicago 5 Hong Kong 6 Singapore 7 Frankfurt 8 Paris 9 Seoul 10 Los Angeles
Digg 
Delicious 
Reddit 
StumbleUpon 
Google 
Technorati 
Netvouz