Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, and Bengaluru among world's top 30 financial services talent hubs: Colliers
ADVERTISEMENT
India is cementing its position as a leading global talent hub for the financial services sector, with cities such as Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, and Bengaluru ranking among the world's top 30 financial services markets, according to a new report by Colliers.
The report, titled Global Financial Services Markets: Top Talent Locations 2026, found that financial services firms are increasingly re-evaluating their location strategies as they seek to balance access to talent, cost competitiveness and rapid technological change. While established global financial centres continue to play a critical role, a broader network of strategic and emerging markets is gaining importance as companies rethink where work is performed.
Based on an analysis of more than 200 markets worldwide, the report identifies financial services hubs where talent depth, investment activity, and long-term growth prospects are converging.
The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region accounted for 39% of the global financial services companies covered in the study, the highest share among all regions. The region also represented around 36% of the global talent centres identified in the rankings and dominated the category of domestic and operational centres, accounting for 44% of ranked markets.
Major APAC cities, including Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and key Indian markets such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Delhi-NCR, featured among the leading global financial services locations, supported by strong venture capital activity, labour market strength and industry output.
Among Indian cities, Mumbai emerged as a leading "Global Centre" for financial services talent, while Delhi-NCR was recognised as a prominent "Strategic Centre". Bengaluru was identified as one of the world's leading "Domestic & Operational Centres".
"India is rapidly strengthening its position as a global financial services hub, backed by a deep talent pool, technology expertise and operational scale. As firms increasingly look beyond global financial headquarters and delivery centres, Indian cities are well positioned to support both strategic and high-value business functions," said Arpit Mehrotra, Managing Director, Office Services, Colliers India.
He added that growing office space demand from global and domestic banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) firms is expected to drive the sector's share of office leasing demand to 15-20% over the next few years.
The report highlighted India's continued leadership in the APAC region in terms of talent depth and labour strength. Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru ranked among the region's strongest financial services talent markets, supported by large skilled workforces and robust pipelines of finance professionals.
India also topped the labour index category in APAC, with Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Pune emerging as the region's three strongest markets based on talent availability and concentration of target occupations.
While Mumbai remains India's primary financial hub, cities including Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai are increasingly attracting financial services firms due to cost advantages, strong talent pools and maturing business ecosystems.
According to the report, demand for specialised skills in areas such as digital banking, risk management, data analytics and artificial intelligence is likely to further strengthen the role of Indian cities as regional and global talent hubs for financial services.
"As organisations reassess their talent and real estate strategies, access to market data and insights is becoming more important. Firms taking an evidence-based approach will be better positioned to compete for talent and capture growth. We envisage a more distributed and flexible global model for financial services delivery, with Asia Pacific positioned at the centre of future growth," said Mike Davis, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Occupier Services, Colliers.