To be sure, the city is not yet in the league of New York, London, Singapore

Great efforts have been made by the central regulators and the municipal government of Shanghai to narrow the gap between the city and other leading financial centers such as New York, London and Singapore. The spectacular results of their efforts are now evident in the form of Shanghai's rising stock among the world's best financial hubs.

Although its global standing is much brighter now that it was a few years back, it is probably a bit premature to claim that the metropolis is on its way to becoming the world's best financial hub.

One of the issues that industry insiders and experts have highlighted time and again is the openness of the financial market. Central regulators have understood very well the importance of that by coming up with a number of opening-up policies in banking, securities and insurance. But it will certainly take some time to see the difference here.