Busan City Secures Hosting of the 2026 International Financial Centers Forum Annual Meeting

October 15 Tokyo Annual General Meeting, Busan Selected as Host City for 2026

International Financial Center Index Rises to 25th Place, Reaffirming Financial Hub Status

Busan City and the Busan International Financial Promotion Agency (President Lee Myung-ho) have secured the hosting rights for the ‘2026 World Alliance of International Financial Centers (WAIFC) Annual General Meeting.’

2024 WAIFC Annual Meeting (Tokyo).

This hosting decision was finalized at the 2024 Annual General Meeting held in Tokyo, Japan, on October 15. The Busan International Financial Promotion Agency attended the meeting to discuss and decide on key agendas for the development of global financial hubs, with Frankfurt selected as the host city for 2025 and Busan for 2026.

▲Designation of a Financial Opportunity Development Zone ▲Phase 3 development of the Busan International Financial Center (BIFC) ▲Promotion of the Korea Development Bank’s relocation to Busan ▲Proposal of a Special Act for Global Hub Cities, among various Busan financial center development initiatives, received positive evaluations from international financial centers, leading to the successful bid to host the 2026 meeting.

Earlier, in September, Busan was ranked 25th out of 121 countries in the ‘Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI),’ a representative index measuring the financial competitiveness of major cities worldwide, rising 8 places from the previous year and achieving its highest-ever ranking.

The WAIFC Annual General Meeting will be hosted in Asia by Busan following the United Arab Emirates (UAE) cities of Abu Dhabi in 2019 and Dubai in 2021, and Tokyo in 2024. This event will provide an important opportunity to directly introduce ‘Global Financial Hub Busan’ to leaders of financial cities worldwide.

The World Alliance of International Financial Centers (WAIFC), established in 2018, is an international financial center cooperation network headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, aimed at information exchange, strengthening cooperation among international financial centers, and global promotion.

It identifies policy tasks for the development of financial centers in member countries, conducts joint research on various topics such as digital finance, sustainable finance, and maritime finance, and works to promote international publicity and cooperation among member financial centers.

Relevant institutions responsible for financial center promotion in each financial city participate as members. Busan is a founding member alongside 10 cities including Frankfurt and Paris. Currently, 22 cities from 20 countries are members.

Mayor Park Hyung-jun stated, “Securing the hosting of this Annual General Meeting has laid an important foundation for Busan to leap forward as a ‘Global Financial Hub.’ We will continue to expand global cooperation and build advanced financial infrastructure to ensure Busan grows into a world-class financial center beyond Asia.”