The recent decision by a number of high profile companies to delist from the NYSE has once again opened the debate concerning the location of the world’s financial capital.

Last week we reported that the BG Group had joined a growing number of companies to abandon the NYSE (citing the familiar burden of Sarbanes-Oxley as its primary reason) and Wall Street, for so long the focal point of the financial world, looks as though it is in danger of losing its gloss as businesses continue leave the Big Apple and head to London.

According to Fortune’s Peter Gumbel, it’s easy to see why.

“To understand why London thinks it's beating New York in a race to become the financial capital of the world, walk across the Millennium Bridge toward St. Paul's Cathedral and count the number of cranes that clutter the skyline,” he says.

“The City, London's financial district, is in the midst of its biggest redevelopment boom since the Blitz, one result of the $100 billion in foreign investment pouring into the British capital annually.”

In June Gordon Brown trumpeted London’s dominant position in the financial world, even going so far as to claim that the current period would be looked upon in the capital as “the beginning of a new golden age”, and as property prices in London continue to soar and city bonuses go on rising, you would find few who disagree.

One indicator of New York’s decline can be seen in figures concerning global IPOs, with a recent McKinsey report suggesting that New York’s share of IPOs worth $1bn has shrunk from a massive 57% in 2001 to a bitesize 16% in 2006.

Of course, defining the relative financial power of any city is exceptionally complex and, some may argue, ultimately futile, but at a time when the ‘special relationship’ between the US and the UK is under greater scrutiny than ever, it seems that London, in business terms at least, is beating its rival from across the pond hands down.