Financial district or financial heart (in English, central business district or downtown) is the general term used to designate the central areas where shops and offices are concentrated, in addition, there are many tall buildings (skyscrapers) and which in European cities usually coincides with the old town and some areas of the extensions of the 19th century. Its streets are the most frequented and accessible and housing prices are high, although the resident population is sometimes scarce.

The term downtown is believed to have been forged in New York City, where it was used in the 1830s to refer to the old part of the city, located on the southern tip of the island of Manhattan. The growth of New York City forced it to expand to the north of the island, upstream from the city's original location. With the creation of the city map, the terminology "up" and "down" appeared, to refer to the northern area and the southern area respectively. Thus, everything that was north of the original city was called "uptown" (Upper Manhattan), while the old city - at that time the financial center - was called "downtown" (Lower Manhattan).[1]​.

A characteristic landscape of the CBD of an American city is Park Avenue, in New York.