Hong Kong surged past New York this year and became the world’s second most popular place _ after London _ for companies to float new stock listings.

The city’s amazing success was due to several factors, analysts say. Being next door to mainland China’s booming economy was a huge help. Tough new U.S. accounting rules have discouraged many companies from listing in America.

Hong Kong’s big advantage now is that it has a solid legal and financial system that can handle big initial public offerings, or IPOs. Shanghai isn’t close to being able to match this city, and that’s why a parade of China’s biggest banks decided to launch record-breaking IPOs in Hong Kong this year.

One of them was the world’s biggest ever: the $21.9 billion offering in October by Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the mainland’s largest lender.

With two weeks left in the year, Hong Kong has raked in HK$307.7 billion, or US$39.57 billion, in IPOs _ nearly twice as much as the HK$165.7 billion raised last year, according to Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd., the listed firm that operates the stock exchange.

London was the world leader for IPO equity raised, with $48.92 billion raised, according to the World Federation of Exchanges. Hong Kong was second and the New York Stock Exchange lagged back in third with $33.61 billion, according to the most recent WFE figures, which included the January-November period.

That may be partly because some American companies are holding back from listing in the U.S. due to the strict rules under the Sarbanes-Oxley anti-fraud law, opting instead to stay private.

[1] Washingtonpost.com: Hong Kong Passes NYC in Attracting IPOs