If asked to identify a place that defines financial services in the US, Miami probably wouldn’t be the first city to spring to mind – and fairly so. In consultancy Z/Yen’s ranking of the world’s premier financial hubs, published September 2023, Miami placed 24th. Six other North American cities were graded ahead of it, from top-of-the-table New York to Boston in 17th place.
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But in so many different ways – cultural, political, financial, and as a hotbed of sports and music entertainment – Miami is a city on the rise.
As recently as the turn of the century, this sprawling urban stretch of south Florida still seemed highly provincial. It had not one reputation, but three. It was where middle-class Americans went to retire. It was also a haven for wealthy Latin America families fleeing inflation and political uncertainty at home. Many, fairly or not, also saw it as a place still awash with crime and cocaine.
Now private wealth is flooding into the city in record sums, from Latin America and the wider US.
