The shape of its international financial services industry has dramatically changed since its formation by the Irish Government in 1987, with a loss in banking jobs in contrast to big gains in fund administration, insurance, aircraft leasing and payments.
Total employment in the IFSC now stands at over 38,000, with 10,000 people employed outside of Dublin, paying over €1bn (£0.83bn) in annual corporate taxes and a further €1bn in payroll taxes.
As for the funds industry in Ireland, it continues to grow, with data from the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) at end of December 2021 showing assets in Irish-domiciled funds surpassing €4trn for the first time, a 22.5% growth across all funds, with a growth of 42.1% in exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
In 2021 total net sales into Irish-domiciled funds reached €310.37bn, of which €131.3bn has been into ETFs. This represented more than 80% of all the net sales into European ETFs, which stood at €161bn for the year. Ireland continues to be a top European domicile for ETFs, with Irish-domiciled ETF assets representing 66% of the total European ETF market. Currently, Ireland is the domicile for 5.95% of worldwide investment fund assets, making it the third largest centre in the world.
The total number of Irish-domiciled funds, including sub-funds, reached 8,363 in December 2021, up from 7,962 in December 2020.
Sectoral growth has been buoyed by strong inflows and a favourable economic environment, as global economies continue to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
ublin’s International Financial Services Centre is booming as it celebrates its 35th year on the world stage, with plenty of cranes on the skyline visually indicating a growing presence of companies taking a strategic view of what this European Union member base has to offer.
companies taking a strategic view of what this European Union member base has to offer.
D
Mark Battersby hails the continuing success of financial services in Dublin and elsewhere in the country
We expect growth sectors such as fintech, alternative lending and sustainable finance to continue to be booming sectors in Ireland
Eimear O’Dwyer, Maples and Calder
“
”
Eimear O’Dwyer, co-head of Maples and Calder's Funds & Investment Management team in the Maples Group's Dublin office, specialises in the structuring of UCITS and AIFs as ICAVs, ILPs and 1907 Limited Partnerships. She is also chair of the Irish Funds Legal Working Group and a member of the Irish Chapter of 100 Women in Finance.
Over the course of five decades, the Maples Group has grown from modest beginnings into one of the world's preeminent professional services firms, with operations in the Americas and Caribbean, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.
With investment management booming in the general banking and financial services, there are also a lot of changes going on too.
“Two big players, Ulster Bank and KBC bank decided to move out of the Irish marketplace as others have decided to move in. So, it's a dynamic market with a lot of things changing, but all good.”
Dublin is recognised
as the worldwide expert area for investment funds.
We have all of the legal and regulatory expertise here to
make it work for investment managers
Gráinne O’Farrelly, Kroll
“
”
In common with many others, one of O’Farrelly’s biggest challenges is “certainly going to be continued to be remote working and most firms are going to move to a hybrid model.
“How are we going to make it work for both the employer and the employee alike? The impact that it has on firms cannot be underestimated because it's an enormous shift in working behaviours.
“We have been able to continue to evolve our product offering, revisiting certain structure on some of the funds that we launched many years ago.”
He highlights new investment solutions such as the circular economy amid more focus in ESG investing: “This has been another important year for us in continuing our journey towards sustainability.”
From its Dublin operations, Mediolanum’s extensive distribution network is through financial advisers in Italy, Spain and Germany, with particular success around its multi-manager product. The access to local talent and high quality of life are two big reasons why Pietribiasi favours Dublin as a base for its business, which continues a journey in working with investment boutiques.
“We expect one third of our assets to be managed by boutiques and we are working with them to establish close partnerships over time. After many years of discussion, we recently awarded a mandate to KBI Global Investors, which has strategies that are particularly attractive, like water and sustainable infrastructure.”
We've been building an agile team here in Ireland. We've got eight different nationalities in the team, which is brilliant, and we're bringing in other people, working with companies to effect change
Eve Finn, Legal & General
Investment Management Ireland
“
”
Over at Legal & General Investment Management Ireland, managing director Eve Finn also highlights its focus on “ensuring that we're a sustainable investment partner for our clients” on net zero and climate-related goals. She says this year is seeing “ESG flavours coming through all of the products that we're launching at the moment.
“It’s really important for our business to demonstrate our ESG credentials. But we've been mindful that we have clients and lots of jurisdictions with different local requirements.
“And our programmes are focused in that local way to help us do that as efficiently as we can for our clients on making sure that we're demonstrating the value to them.
“We’ve been trying to come up with sort of comparable standards. We're all investors, and we're trying to pick out the ones that we like, that fit our profile – it's a complete minefield.”
LGIM is the asset management arm of the Legal and General group, headquartered in the UK but with a global footprint, and in the top 15 managers globally.
The Dublin business, which has been operational since 2018, serves clients within Europe: “We set this up as part of our Brexit planning, but also as part of our growth strategy into our wider plans around and increasing our footprints and becoming a larger player in European and institutional and retail markets.”
Finn says: “We've been building an agile team here in Ireland, very small, perfectly formed of nearly 40 people. We've got eight different nationalities in the team, which is brilliant, and we're bringing in other people, working with companies to effect change.”
We’re seeing really vibrant growth, not just over the course of 2021, but really the last couple of years
Pat Lardner, Irish Funds
Industry Association
“
”
International Investment spoke to some of the key players on a visit to Dublin in this special anniversary year to explore the opportunities and challenges this international centre faces in turbulent world.
Pat Lardner, chief executive at the Irish Funds Industry Association, who represents over 150 members, said; “We’re seeing really vibrant growth, not just over the course of 2021, but really the last couple of years.”
“Managing that growth and building a large group with unified vision and culture within that unique environment will take innovation and a tailored approach for an evolutionary environment.
“Technology has rapidly accelerated over the pandemic period to accommodate our new virtual world and the needs of the industry – both clients and internal staff – has changed. To be competitive in both those areas we need to continue to break new ground to sustain the success that we have created over the last 18 years of the Apex Group’s history.”
What trends is he seeing developing in Dublin as an international financial centre this year and beyond? "A number of seismic events have contributed to change in Ireland over the last number of years. Brexit, the pandemic, growth in funds/technology in core service areas for Dublin, have all resulted in an ever-changing environment.
“Over the last 30 years Ireland has established itself on the world map as a centre of excellence for the funds industry, as well as a leading jurisdiction for international technology firms to base their headquarters.
“This trend is set to continue with strong economic growth. Despite an increase in the corporation tax rates to 15%, Ireland has proven itself as delivering a high-end skilled workforce with political and economic stability that is a strong incubator for international firms.
“We see a greater focus on energy supplies to keep up with this demand, and data centre requirements for these large corporations and schemes to attract international talent, along with opening visa schemes to some of the unregistered workforce already here.”
Over at Kroll, a global firm of almost 5,000 employees in 30 countries, Gráinne O’Farrelly, managing director Financial Services Compliance & Regulation, highlights its “huge” investment funds division in Dublin which looks after €5.4trn of assets for 15,000 funds with distribution to 90 countries.
“Dublin is recognised as the worldwide expert area for investment funds. We have all of the legal and regulatory expertise here to make it work for investment managers.”
Pat Lardner, chief executive at the Irish Funds Industry Association, who represents over 150 members, said; “We’re seeing really vibrant growth, not just over the course of 2021, but really the last couple of years.”
He highlights from its latest economic assessment report how the number of people employed directly by either investment managers or fund management companies leapt 40% during those two years to 3,500 people. And of the 17,000 direct employees, around 6,500 of them are located outside of the centre of the city or outside of Dublin, just under 40% of the total, up from around 10% previously.
“There's always a reference to Dublin as a financial centre. But we have a national industry now because we've effectively got four other clusters outside of the Dublin area that are employing in excess of 1,000 people.
“We're now in a situation that no county in the Republic of Ireland is without somebody in our industry working. So that's been a pretty big and significant change for us.”
Another key trend Lardner picks out is the size of the organisations, with a big uplift in the number of firms that are employing 50 people, a demonstration that those people who came over and planted a flag, or set up some form of operation, have expanded and diversified those operations.
As for this year, the association has a very big legislative and policy agenda, he says, specifically around AIFMD.
On 31 March, the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) advised Irish Funds that they have approved in principle a Qualifying Investor Alternative Investment Fund (QIAIF) with a low level of exposure to cash settled Bitcoin futures traded on the CME.
“The latest notice that the Central Bank of Ireland have approved, in principle, indirect crypto exposure for a QIAIF is a welcome first for the industry in Ireland. This is the first type of indirect crypto exposure approved for a QIAIF”, he comments. There is also the Irish government’s roadmap for sustainable finance, to which Irish Funds has contributed.
“We have three very different and strong work streams on that to enable the further developments of Ireland as a centre of excellence in the whole sustainable world.”
Another key focus is on working very closely with the Central Bank of Ireland around their process for authorising products and making sure that the expertise pool is available and supporting the central bank.
“We ultimately want them to be the best national competent authority within the EU. We think that's supportive of the business and its growth.”
He highlights here an inventory done in Q1 on the technology skills needed to support the industry.
“We're also getting into areas like the financial literacy for the mid-teens, not just for financial literacy sake, but also to build an awareness of this now that our industry is national.”
This approach could lead to potential career opportunities “for kids from lots of different backgrounds, who will study lots of different things, not just traditional economics”.
The training and development also extend to lifelong learning accredited designations for people working in the industry, because we know that their skills are going to change over time.
“We are running designated person forums as we have a community now of four to 500 designated persons, whether it be, for example, during the week on distribution, it could be on investment management on risk.
“We're engaging with members but also getting data and insight and information from them to support the advocacy work that we do because ultimately we're seeing the range of stakeholders that we're engaging with not only here domestically in Ireland, but critically because we have an on the ground presence in Brussels.”
He concludes: “We’re fortunate in that we have 600 people actively engaged across our 36 working groups, which gives us not only a collective firepower, but an inclusiveness around how we do things that I think is pretty well unparalleled.”
Against the backdrop of an extremely buoyant time for the industry and a raft of M&A activity, for John Bohan, co-founder and Country Head Business Development (Ireland), Apex Group, a key challenge is “managing the human resources side of the business in terms of scarcity and development within our group to ensure a unified culture”.
“In conjunction with that growth, we are exiting from a pandemic globally and potentially returning to work or, in a lot of cases, hybrid working scenarios.
“Managing that growth and building a large group with unified vision and culture within that unique environment will take innovation and a tailored approach for an evolutionary environment.
“Technology has rapidly accelerated over the pandemic period to accommodate our new virtual world and the needs of the industry – both clients and internal staff – has changed. To be competitive in both those areas we need to continue to break new ground to sustain the success that we have created over the last 18 years of the Apex Group’s history.”
What trends is he seeing developing in Dublin as an international financial centre this year and beyond?
“A number of seismic events have contributed to change in Ireland over the last number of years. Brexit, the pandemic, growth in funds/technology in core service areas for Dublin, have all resulted in an ever-changing environment.
“Over the last 30 years Ireland has established itself on the world map as a centre of excellence for the funds industry, as well as a leading jurisdiction for international technology firms to base their headquarters.
“This trend is set to continue with strong economic growth. Despite an increase in the corporation tax rates to 15%, Ireland has proven itself as delivering a high-end skilled workforce with political and economic stability that is a strong incubator for international firms.
“We see a greater focus on energy supplies to keep up with this demand, and data centre requirements for these large corporations and schemes to attract international talent, along with opening visa schemes to some of the unregistered workforce already here.”
Over at Kroll, a global firm of almost 5,000 employees in 30 countries, Gráinne O’Farrelly, managing director Financial Services Compliance & Regulation, highlights its “huge” investment funds division in Dublin which looks after €5.4trn of assets for 15,000 funds with distribution to 90 countries.
“Dublin is recognised as the worldwide expert area for investment funds. We have all of the legal and regulatory expertise here to make it work for investment managers.”
In common with many others, one of O’Farrelly’s biggest challenges is “certainly going to be continued to be remote working and most firms are going to move to a hybrid model.
“How are we going to make it work for both the employer and the employee alike? The impact that it has on firms cannot be underestimated because it's an enormous shift in working behaviours.
“It does require real management skills to figure out how to motivate a team where they are coming into the office sometimes and where not everybody in the team is present.
“People are experiencing pandemic fatigue, I would say. And so, I think the next quarter is going to be very important in figuring out how to get that hybrid model right.”
Also tied into that are labour market shortages and increased wage inflation, and that's making it an employee's market.
“Employees can more or less name their price if they have if they're good candidates and they have good experience behind them.”
A key focus this year, adds O’Farrelly, is on networking in the industry again, now that's a possibility. “Building our partnerships with our clients, making sure that we can help them do what they need to do, given what's happened over the last couple of years and working on a strategy with them.”
Business development in the region is continuing apace, she says as “Ireland is very well placed obviously post-Brexit as well, because there are still a lot of firms in the UK that are figuring out the best way forward for them.
“As a pathway into Europe, it would be one of the first places they would look to. We obviously have competition in Luxembourg. But I do think that from the UK perspective, we're probably well-placed for UK asset managers to come here.”
Furio Pietribiasi, CEO of Mediolanum International Funds, echoes this view, adding: “I'm particularly proud of the fact that this has been one record year for us in terms of results, but not simply because we have good support from the markets. More important because we receive further confirmation of the trust of our clients, about our business and the solution that we provided to the market.
“We have been able to continue to evolve our product offering, revisiting certain structure on some of the funds that we launched many years ago.”
He highlights new investment solutions such as the circular economy amid more focus in ESG investing: “This has been another important year for us in continuing our journey towards sustainability.”
From its Dublin operations, Mediolanum’s extensive distribution network is through financial advisers in Italy, Spain and Germany, with particular success around its multi-manager product. The access to local talent and high quality of life are two big reasons why Pietribiasi favours Dublin as a base for its business, which continues a journey in working with investment boutiques.
“We expect one third of our assets to be managed by boutiques and we are working with them to establish close partnerships over time. After many years of discussion, we recently awarded a mandate to KPI Global Investors, which has strategies that are particularly attractive, like water and sustainable infrastructure.”
Over at Legal & General Investment Management Ireland, managing director Eve Finn also highlights its focus on “ensuring that we're a sustainable investment partner for our clients” on net zero and climate-related goals. She says this year is seeing “ESG flavours coming through all of the products that we're launching at the moment.
“It’s really important for our business to demonstrate our ESG credentials. But we've been mindful that we have clients and lots of jurisdictions with different local requirements.
“And our programmes are focused in that local way to help us do that as efficiently as we can for our clients on making sure that we're demonstrating the value to them.
“We’ve been trying to come up with sort of comparable standards. We're all investors, and we're trying to pick out the ones that we like, that fit our profile – it's a complete minefield.”
LGIM is the asset management arm of the Legal and General group, headquartered in the UK but with a global footprint, and in the top 15 managers globally.
The Dublin business, which has been operational since 2018, serves clients within Europe: “We set this up as part of our Brexit planning, but also as part of our growth strategy into our wider plans around and increasing our footprints and becoming a larger player in European and institutional and retail markets.”
Finn says: “We've been building an agile team here in Ireland, very small, perfectly formed of nearly 40 people. We've got eight different nationalities in the team, which is brilliant, and we're bringing in other people, working with companies to effect change.”
Eimear O’Dwyer, co-head of Maples and Calder's Funds & Investment Management team in the Maples Group's Dublin office, specialises in the structuring of UCITS and AIFs as ICAVs, ILPs and 1907 Limited Partnerships. She is also chair of the Irish Funds Legal Working Group and a member of the Irish Chapter of 100 Women in Finance.
Over the course of five decades, the Maples Group has grown from modest beginnings into one of the world's preeminent professional services firms, with operations in the Americas and Caribbean, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.
As of 31 October 2021, the Maples Group employs over 2,300 professionals worldwide, with over 440 professionals based in Ireland. The Group's Irish office was launched in 2006 and continues to serve as an important European hub for international clients doing business in and from Ireland.
O’Dwyer says: “Despite considerable logistical and other headwinds created by the pandemic since March 2020, we have remained very busy across our practice areas. Funds and Investment Management, Finance, Corporate, Tax, Employment, Financial Services Regulatory, Dispute Resolution and Insolvency and Projects and Construction have all proved resilient.
“The fact that we are a well-diversified and truly international business, with the right balance of transactional and advisory work, has definitely been an advantage to us. The team is also heavily focused on growth sectors such as fintech, alternative lending and sustainable finance. We expect these to continue to be booming sectors in Ireland.
“We also anticipate that the funds industry will continue to grow in 2022, especially as the appetite for investing in ESG funds increases and with the Investment Limited Partnership Act, which is a strong, positive example of how Ireland can compete at an international level for future investment opportunities. Striking the right balance between regulation and flexibility, it is ideally placed to meet the requirements of investors who require a regulated structure.”
For his part, Sean Hawkshaw, chief executive of KBI Global Investors, points to a very dynamic and collaborative environment between CEOs, CIOs and investment teams around Dublin.
“The Irish Association of Investment Managers, which I'm involved in, has really got an impetus and comes with common objectives clarified from a very strong group of financial companies.
With investment management booming in the general banking and financial services, there are also have a lot of changes going on too.
“Two big players, Ulster Bank and KBC bank decided to move out of the Irish marketplace as others have decided to move in. So, it's a dynamic market with a lot of things changing, but all good.”
In common with many others, one of O’Farrelly’s biggest challenges is “certainly going to be continued to be remote working and most firms are going to move to a hybrid model.
“How are we going to make it work for both the employer and the employee alike? The impact that it has on firms cannot be underestimated because it's an enormous shift in working behaviours.
“It does require real management skills to figure out how to motivate a team where they are coming into the office sometimes and where not everybody in the team is present.
“People are experiencing pandemic fatigue, I would say. And so, I think the next quarter is going to be very important in figuring out how to get that hybrid model right.”
Also tied into that are labour market shortages and increased wage inflation, and that's making it an employee's market.
“Employees can more or less name their price if they have if they're good candidates and they have good experience behind them.”
A key focus this year, adds O’Farrelly, is on networking in the industry again, now that's a possibility. “Building our partnerships with our clients, making sure that we can help them do what they need to do, given what's happened over the last couple of years and working on a strategy with them.”
Business development in the region is continuing apace, she says as “Ireland is very well placed obviously post-Brexit as well, because there are still a lot of firms in the UK that are figuring out the best way forward for them.
“As a pathway into Europe, it would be one of the first places they would look to. We obviously have competition in Luxembourg. But I do think that from the UK perspective, we're probably well-placed for UK asset managers to come here.”
Furio Pietribiasi, CEO of Mediolanum International Funds, echoes this view, adding: “I'm particularly proud of the fact that this has been one record year for us in terms of results, but not simply because we have good support from the markets. More important because we receive further confirmation of the trust of our clients, about our business and the solution that we provided to the market.
“We have been able to continue to evolve our product offering, revisiting certain structure on some of the funds that we launched many years ago.”
He highlights new investment solutions such as the circular economy amid more focus in ESG investing: “This has been another important year for us in continuing our journey towards sustainability.”
From its Dublin operations, Mediolanum’s extensive distribution network is through financial advisers in Italy, Spain and Germany, with particular success around its multi-manager product. The access to local talent and high quality of life are two big reasons why Pietribiasi favours Dublin as a base for its business, which continues a journey in working with investment boutiques.
“We expect one third of our assets to be managed by boutiques and we are working with them to establish close partnerships over time. After many years of discussion, we recently awarded a mandate to KPI Global Investors, which has strategies that are particularly attractive, like water and sustainable infrastructure.”
Over at Legal & General Investment Management Ireland, managing director Eve Finn also highlights its focus on “ensuring that we're a sustainable investment partner for our clients” on net zero and climate-related goals. She says this year is seeing “ESG flavours coming through all of the products that we're launching at the moment.
“It’s really important for our business to demonstrate our ESG credentials. But we've been mindful that we have clients and lots of jurisdictions with different local requirements.
“And our programmes are focused in that local way to help us do that as efficiently as we can for our clients on making sure that we're demonstrating the value to them.
“We’ve been trying to come up with sort of comparable standards. We're all investors, and we're trying to pick out the ones that we like, that fit our profile – it's a complete minefield.”
LGIM is the asset management arm of the Legal and General group, headquartered in the UK but with a global footprint, and in the top 15 managers globally.
The Dublin business, which has been operational since 2018, serves clients within Europe: “We set this up as part of our Brexit planning, but also as part of our growth strategy into our wider plans around and increasing our footprints and becoming a larger player in European and institutional and retail markets.”
Finn says: “We've been building an agile team here in Ireland, very small, perfectly formed of nearly 40 people. We've got eight different nationalities in the team, which is brilliant, and we're bringing in other people, working with companies to effect change.”
Eimear O’Dwyer, co-head of Maples and Calder's Funds & Investment Management team in the Maples Group's Dublin office, specialises in the structuring of UCITS and AIFs as ICAVs, ILPs and 1907 Limited Partnerships. She is also chair of the Irish Funds Legal Working Group and a member of the Irish Chapter of 100 Women in Finance.
Over the course of five decades, the Maples Group has grown from modest beginnings into one of the world's preeminent professional services firms, with operations in the Americas and Caribbean, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.
As of 31 October 2021, the Maples Group employs over 2,300 professionals worldwide, with over 440 professionals based in Ireland. The Group's Irish office was launched in 2006 and continues to serve as an important European hub for international clients doing business in and from Ireland.
O’Dwyer says: “Despite considerable logistical and other headwinds created by the pandemic since March 2020, we have remained very busy across our practice areas. Funds and Investment Management, Finance, Corporate, Tax, Employment, Financial Services Regulatory, Dispute Resolution and Insolvency and Projects and Construction have all proved resilient.
“The fact that we are a well-diversified and truly international business, with the right balance of transactional and advisory work, has definitely been an advantage to us. The team is also heavily focused on growth sectors such as fintech, alternative lending and sustainable finance. We expect these to continue to be booming sectors in Ireland.
“We also anticipate that the funds industry will continue to grow in 2022, especially as the appetite for investing in ESG funds increases and with the Investment Limited Partnership Act, which is a strong, positive example of how Ireland can compete at an international level for future investment opportunities. Striking the right balance between regulation and flexibility, it is ideally placed to meet the requirements of investors who require a regulated structure.”
For his part, Sean Hawkshaw, chief executive of KBI Global Investors, points to a very dynamic and collaborative environment between CEOs, CIOs and investment teams around Dublin.
“The Irish Association of Investment Managers, which I'm involved in, has really got an impetus and comes with common objectives clarified from a very strong group of financial companies.
With investment management booming in the general banking and financial services, there are also have a lot of changes going on too.
“Two big players, Ulster Bank and KBC bank decided to move out of the Irish marketplace as others have decided to move in. So, it's a dynamic market with a lot of things changing, but all good.”
Over at Legal & General Investment Management Ireland, managing director Eve Finn also highlights its focus on “ensuring that we're a sustainable investment partner for our clients” on net zero and climate-related goals. She says this year is seeing “ESG flavours coming through all of the products that we're launching at the moment.
“It’s really important for our business to demonstrate our ESG credentials. But we've been mindful that we have clients and lots of jurisdictions with different local requirements.
“And our programmes are focused in that local way to help us do that as efficiently as we can for our clients on making sure that we're demonstrating the value to them.
“We’ve been trying to come up with sort of comparable standards. We're all investors, and we're trying to pick out the ones that we like, that fit our profile – it's a complete minefield.”
LGIM is the asset management arm of the Legal and General group, headquartered in the UK but with a global footprint, and in the top 15 managers globally.
The Dublin business, which has been operational since 2018, serves clients within Europe: “We set this up as part of our Brexit planning, but also as part of our growth strategy into our wider plans around and increasing our footprints and becoming a larger player in European and institutional and retail markets.”
Finn says: “We've been building an agile team here in Ireland, very small, perfectly formed of nearly 40 people. We've got eight different nationalities in the team, which is brilliant, and we're bringing in other people, working with companies to effect change.”
Eimear O’Dwyer, co-head of Maples and Calder's Funds & Investment Management team in the Maples Group's Dublin office, specialises in the structuring of UCITS and AIFs as ICAVs, ILPs and 1907 Limited Partnerships. She is also chair of the Irish Funds Legal Working Group and a member of the Irish Chapter of 100 Women in Finance.
Over the course of five decades, the Maples Group has grown from modest beginnings into one of the world's preeminent professional services firms, with operations in the Americas and Caribbean, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.
As of 31 October 2021, the Maples Group employs over 2,300 professionals worldwide, with over 440 professionals based in Ireland. The Group's Irish office was launched in 2006 and continues to serve as an important European hub for international clients doing business in and from Ireland.
O’Dwyer says: “Despite considerable logistical and other headwinds created by the pandemic since March 2020, we have remained very busy across our practice areas. Funds and Investment Management, Finance, Corporate, Tax, Employment, Financial Services Regulatory, Dispute Resolution and Insolvency and Projects and Construction have all proved resilient.
“The fact that we are a well-diversified and truly international business, with the right balance of transactional and advisory work, has definitely been an advantage to us. The team is also heavily focused on growth sectors such as fintech, alternative lending and sustainable finance. We expect these to continue to be booming sectors in Ireland.
“We also anticipate that the funds industry will continue to grow in 2022, especially as the appetite for investing in ESG funds increases and with the Investment Limited Partnership Act, which is a strong, positive example of how Ireland can compete at an international level for future investment opportunities. Striking the right balance between regulation and flexibility, it is ideally placed to meet the requirements of investors who require a regulated structure.”
For his part, Sean Hawkshaw, chief executive of KBI Global Investors, points to a very dynamic and collaborative environment between CEOs, CIOs and investment teams around Dublin.
“The Irish Association of Investment Managers, which I'm involved in, has really got an impetus and comes with common objectives clarified from a very strong group of financial companies.
With investment management booming in the general banking and financial services, there are also have a lot of changes going on too.
“Two big players, Ulster Bank and KBC bank decided to move out of the Irish marketplace as others have decided to move in. So, it's a dynamic market with a lot of things changing, but all good.”
Eimear O’Dwyer, Maples and Calder
Technology has rapidly accelerated over the pandemic period to accommodate our new virtual world and the needs of the industry – both clients and internal staff – has changed
John Bohan, Apex Group
“
”
He highlights from its latest economic assessment report how the number of people employed directly by either investment managers or fund management companies leapt 40% during those two years to 3,500 people. And of the 17,000 direct employees, around 6,500 of them are located outside of the centre of the city or outside of Dublin, just under 40% of the total, up from around 10% previously.
“There's always a reference to Dublin as a financial centre. But we have a national industry now because we've effectively got four other clusters outside of the Dublin area that are employing in excess of 1,000 people.
“We're now in a situation that no county in the Republic of Ireland is without somebody in our industry working. So that's been a pretty big and significant change for us.”
Another key trend Lardner picks out is the size of the organisations, with a big uplift in the number of firms that are employing 50 people, a demonstration that those people who came over and planted a flag, or set up some form of operation, have expanded and diversified those operations.
As for this year, the association has a very big legislative and policy agenda, he says, specifically around AIFMD.
On 31 March, the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) advised Irish Funds that they have approved in principle a Qualifying Investor Alternative Investment Fund (QIAIF) with a low level of exposure to cash settled Bitcoin futures traded on the CME.
“The latest notice that the CBI has approved, in principle, indirect crypto exposure for a QIAIF is a welcome first for the industry in Ireland. This is the first type of indirect crypto exposure approved for a QIAIF”, he comments. There is also the Irish government’s roadmap for sustainable finance, to which Irish Funds has contributed.
“We have three very different and strong work streams on that to enable the further developments of Ireland as a centre of excellence in the whole sustainable world.”
Against the backdrop of an extremely buoyant time for the industry and a raft of M&A activity, for John Bohan, co-founder and Country Head Business Development (Ireland), Apex Group, a key challenge is “managing the human resources side of the business in terms of scarcity and development within our group to ensure a unified culture”.
“In conjunction with that growth, we are exiting from a pandemic globally and potentially returning to work or, in a lot of cases, hybrid working scenarios.
We have been able to continue to evolve our product offering, revisiting certain structure on some of the funds that we launched many years ago
Furio Pietribiasi, Mediolanum International Funds
“
”
“It does require real management skills to figure out how to motivate a team where they are coming into the office sometimes and where not everybody in the team is present.
“People are experiencing pandemic fatigue, I would say. And so, I think the next quarter is going to be very important in figuring out how to get that hybrid model right.”
Also tied into that are labour market shortages and increased wage inflation, and that's making it an employee's market.
“Employees can more or less name their price if they have if they're good candidates and they have good experience behind them.”
A key focus this year, adds O’Farrelly, is on networking in the industry again, now that's a possibility. “Building our partnerships with our clients, making sure that we can help them do what they need to do, given what's happened over the last couple of years and working on a strategy with them.”
Business development in the region is continuing apace, she says as “Ireland is very well placed obviously post-Brexit as well, because there are still a lot of firms in the UK that are figuring out the best way forward for them.
“As a pathway into Europe, it would be one of the first places they would look to. We obviously have competition in Luxembourg. But I do think that from the UK perspective, we're probably well-placed for UK asset managers to come here.”
Furio Pietribiasi, CEO of Mediolanum International Funds, echoes this view, adding: “I'm particularly proud of the fact that this has been one record year for us in terms of results, but not simply because we have good support from the markets. More important because we receive further confirmation of the trust of our clients, about our business and the solution that we provided to the market.
As of 31 October 2021, the Maples Group employs over 2,300 professionals worldwide, with over 440 professionals based in Ireland. The Group's Irish office was launched in 2006 and continues to serve as an important European hub for international clients doing business in and from Ireland.
O’Dwyer says: “Despite considerable logistical and other headwinds created by the pandemic since March 2020, we have remained very busy across our practice areas. Funds and Investment Management, Finance, Corporate, Tax, Employment, Financial Services Regulatory, Dispute Resolution and Insolvency and Projects and Construction have all proved resilient.
“The fact that we are a well-diversified and truly international business, with the right balance of transactional and advisory work, has definitely been an advantage to us. The team is also heavily focused on growth sectors such as fintech, alternative lending and sustainable finance. We expect these to continue to be booming sectors in Ireland.
“We also anticipate that the funds industry will continue to grow in 2022, especially as the appetite for investing in ESG funds increases and with the Investment Limited Partnership Act, which is a strong, positive example of how Ireland can compete at an international level for future investment opportunities. Striking the right balance between regulation and flexibility, it is ideally placed to meet the requirements of investors who require a regulated structure.”
The Irish Association of Investment Managers has really got an impetus and comes with common objectives clarified from a very strong group of financial companies
Sean Hawkshaw,
KBI Global Investors
“
”
For his part, Sean Hawkshaw, chief executive of KBI Global Investors, points to a very dynamic and collaborative environment between CEOs, CIOs and investment teams around Dublin.
“The Irish Association of Investment Managers, which I'm involved in, has really got an impetus and comes with common objectives clarified from a very strong group of financial companies.
Pat Lardner, chief executive at the Irish Funds Industry Association, who represents over 150 members, said; “We’re seeing really vibrant growth, not just over the course of 2021, but really the last couple of years.”
He highlights from its latest economic assessment report how the number of people employed directly by either investment managers or fund management companies leapt 40% during those two years to 3,500 people. And of the 17,000 direct employees, around 6,500 of them are located outside of the centre of the city or outside of Dublin, just under 40% of the total, up from around 10% previously.
“There's always a reference to Dublin as a financial centre. But we have a national industry now because we've effectively got four other clusters outside of the Dublin area that are employing in excess of 1,000 people.
“We're now in a situation that no county in the Republic of Ireland is without somebody in our industry working. So that's been a pretty big and significant change for us.”
Another key trend Lardner picks out is the size of the organisations, with a big uplift in the number of firms that are employing 50 people, a demonstration that those people who came over and planted a flag, or set up some form of operation, have expanded and diversified those operations.
As for this year, the association has a very big legislative and policy agenda, he says, specifically around AIFMD.
On 31 March, the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) advised Irish Funds that they have approved in principle a Qualifying Investor Alternative Investment Fund (QIAIF) with a low level of exposure to cash settled Bitcoin futures traded on the CME.
“The latest notice that the Central Bank of Ireland have approved, in principle, indirect crypto exposure for a QIAIF is a welcome first for the industry in Ireland. This is the first type of indirect crypto exposure approved for a QIAIF”, he comments. There is also the Irish government’s roadmap for sustainable finance, to which Irish Funds has contributed.
“We have three very different and strong work streams on that to enable the further developments of Ireland as a centre of excellence in the whole sustainable world.”
Another key focus is on working very closely with the Central Bank of Ireland around their process for authorising products and making sure that the expertise pool is available and supporting the central bank.
“We ultimately want them to be the best national competent authority within the EU. We think that's supportive of the business and its growth.”
Lardner highlights here an inventory done in Q1 on the technology skills needed to support the industry.
“We're also getting into areas like the financial literacy for the mid-teens, not just for financial literacy sake, but also to build an awareness of this now that our industry is national.”
This approach could lead to potential career opportunities “for kids from lots of different backgrounds, who will study lots of different things, not just traditional economics”.
The training and development also extend to lifelong learning accredited designations for people working in the industry, because we know that their skills are going to change over time.
“We are running designated person forums as we have a community now of four to 500 designated persons, whether it be, for example, during the week on distribution, it could be on investment management on risk.
“We're engaging with members but also getting data and insight and information from them to support the advocacy work that we do because ultimately we're seeing the range of stakeholders that we're engaging with not only here domestically in Ireland, but critically because we have an on the ground presence in Brussels.”
He concludes: “We’re fortunate in that we have 600 people actively engaged across our 36 working groups, which gives us not only a collective firepower, but an inclusiveness around how we do things that I think is pretty well unparalleled.”
Against the backdrop of an extremely buoyant time for the industry and a raft of M&A activity, for John Bohan, co-founder and Country Head Business Development (Ireland), Apex Group, a key challenge is “managing the human resources side of the business in terms of scarcity and development within our group to ensure a unified culture”.
“In conjunction with that growth, we are exiting from a pandemic globally and potentially returning to work or, in a lot of cases, hybrid working scenarios.
“Managing that growth and building a large group with unified vision and culture within that unique environment will take innovation and a tailored approach for an evolutionary environment.
“Technology has rapidly accelerated over the pandemic period to accommodate our new virtual world and the needs of the industry – both clients and internal staff – has changed. To be competitive in both those areas we need to continue to break new ground to sustain the success that we have created over the last 18 years of the Apex Group’s history.”
What trends is he seeing developing in Dublin as an international financial centre this year and beyond?
“A number of seismic events have contributed to change in Ireland over the last number of years. Brexit, the pandemic, growth in funds/technology in core service areas for Dublin, have all resulted in an ever-changing environment.
“Over the last 30 years Ireland has established itself on the world map as a centre of excellence for the funds industry, as well as a leading jurisdiction for international technology firms to base their headquarters.
“This trend is set to continue with strong economic growth. Despite an increase in the corporation tax rates to 15%, Ireland has proven itself as delivering a high-end skilled workforce with political and economic stability that is a strong incubator for international firms.
“We see a greater focus on energy supplies to keep up with this demand, and data centre requirements for these large corporations and schemes to attract international talent, along with opening visa schemes to some of the unregistered workforce already here.”
Over at Kroll, a global firm of almost 5,000 employees in 30 countries, Gráinne O’Farrelly, managing director Financial Services Compliance & Regulation, highlights its “huge” investment funds division in Dublin which looks after €5.4trn of assets for 15,000 funds with distribution to 90 countries.
“Dublin is recognised as the worldwide expert area for investment funds. We have all of the legal and regulatory expertise here to make it work for investment managers.”
Against the backdrop of an extremely buoyant time for the industry and a raft of M&A activity, for John Bohan, co-founder and Country Head Business Development (Ireland), Apex Group, a key challenge is “managing the human resources side of the business in terms of scarcity and development within our group to ensure a unified culture”.
“In conjunction with that growth, we are exiting from a pandemic globally and potentially returning to work or, in a lot of cases, hybrid working scenarios.
“Managing that growth and building a large group with unified vision and culture within that unique environment will take innovation and a tailored approach for an evolutionary environment.
“Technology has rapidly accelerated over the pandemic period to accommodate our new virtual world and the needs of the industry – both clients and internal staff – has changed. To be competitive in both those areas we need to continue to break new ground to sustain the success that we have created over the last 18 years of the Apex Group’s history.”
What trends is he seeing developing in Dublin as an international financial centre this year and beyond?
“A number of seismic events have contributed to change in Ireland over the last number of years. Brexit, the pandemic, growth in funds/technology in core service areas for Dublin, have all resulted in an ever-changing environment.
“Over the last 30 years Ireland has established itself on the world map as a centre of excellence for the funds industry, as well as a leading jurisdiction for international technology firms to base their headquarters.
“This trend is set to continue with strong economic growth. Despite an increase in the corporation tax rates to 15%, Ireland has proven itself as delivering a high-end skilled workforce with political and economic stability that is a strong incubator for international firms.
“We see a greater focus on energy supplies to keep up with this demand, and data centre requirements for these large corporations and schemes to attract international talent, along with opening visa schemes to some of the unregistered workforce already here.”
Over at Kroll, a global firm of almost 5,000 employees in 30 countries, Gráinne O’Farrelly, managing director Financial Services Compliance & Regulation, highlights its “huge” investment funds division in Dublin which looks after €5.4trn of assets for 15,000 funds with distribution to 90 countries.
“Dublin is recognised as the worldwide expert area for investment funds. We have all of the legal and regulatory expertise here to make it work for investment managers.”
In common with many others, one of O’Farrelly’s biggest challenges is “certainly going to be continued to be remote working and most firms are going to move to a hybrid model.
“How are we going to make it work for both the employer and the employee alike? The impact that it has on firms cannot be underestimated because it's an enormous shift in working behaviours.
“It does require real management skills to figure out how to motivate a team where they are coming into the office sometimes and where not everybody in the team is present.
“People are experiencing pandemic fatigue, I would say. And so, I think the next quarter is going to be very important in figuring out how to get that hybrid model right.”
Also tied into that are labour market shortages and increased wage inflation, and that's making it an employee's market.
“Employees can more or less name their price if they have if they're good candidates and they have good experience behind them.”
A key focus this year, adds O’Farrelly, is on networking in the industry again, now that's a possibility. “Building our partnerships with our clients, making sure that we can help them do what they need to do, given what's happened over the last couple of years and working on a strategy with them.”
Business development in the region is continuing apace, she says as “Ireland is very well placed obviously post-Brexit as well, because there are still a lot of firms in the UK that are figuring out the best way forward for them.
“As a pathway into Europe, it would be one of the first places they would look to. We obviously have competition in Luxembourg. But I do think that from the UK perspective, we're probably well-placed for UK asset managers to come here.”
Furio Pietribiasi, CEO of Mediolanum International Funds, echoes this view, adding: “I'm particularly proud of the fact that this has been one record year for us in terms of results, but not simply because we have good support from the markets. More important because we receive further confirmation of the trust of our clients, about our business and the solution that we provided to the market.
“We have been able to continue to evolve our product offering, revisiting certain structure on some of the funds that we launched many years ago.”
He highlights new investment solutions such as the circular economy amid more focus in ESG investing: “This has been another important year for us in continuing our journey towards sustainability.”
From its Dublin operations, Mediolanum’s extensive distribution network is through financial advisers in Italy, Spain and Germany, with particular success around its multi-manager product. The access to local talent and high quality of life are two big reasons why Pietribiasi favours Dublin as a base for its business, which continues a journey in working with investment boutiques.
“We expect one third of our assets to be managed by boutiques and we are working with them to establish close partnerships over time. After many years of discussion, we recently awarded a mandate to KPI Global Investors, which has strategies that are particularly attractive, like water and sustainable infrastructure.”
Over the course of five decades, the Maples Group has grown from modest beginnings into one of the world's preeminent professional services firms, with operations in the Americas and Caribbean, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.
As of 31 October 2021, the Maples Group employs over 2,300 professionals worldwide, with over 440 professionals based in Ireland. The Group's Irish office was launched in 2006 and continues to serve as an important European hub for international clients doing business in and from Ireland.
O’Dwyer says: “Despite considerable logistical and other headwinds created by the pandemic since March 2020, we have remained very busy across our practice areas. Funds and Investment Management, Finance, Corporate, Tax, Employment, Financial Services Regulatory, Dispute Resolution and Insolvency and Projects and Construction have all proved resilient.
“The fact that we are a well-diversified and truly international business, with the right balance of transactional and advisory work, has definitely been an advantage to us. The team is also heavily focused on growth sectors such as fintech, alternative lending and sustainable finance. We expect these to continue to be booming sectors in Ireland.
“We also anticipate that the funds industry will continue to grow in 2022, especially as the appetite for investing in ESG funds increases and with the Investment Limited Partnership Act, which is a strong, positive example of how Ireland can compete at an international level for future investment opportunities. Striking the right balance between regulation and flexibility, it is ideally placed to meet the requirements of investors who require a regulated structure.”
For his part, Sean Hawkshaw, chief executive of KBI Global Investors, points to a very dynamic and collaborative environment between CEOs, CIOs and investment teams around Dublin.
“The Irish Association of Investment Managers, which I'm involved in, has really got an impetus and comes with common objectives clarified from a very strong group of financial companies.
With investment management booming in the general banking and financial services, there are also a lot of changes going on too.
“Two big players, Ulster Bank and KBC bank decided to move out of the Irish marketplace as others have decided to move in. So, it's a dynamic market with a lot of things changing, but all good.”
Dublin is recognised
as the worldwide expert area for investment funds.
We have all of the legal and regulatory expertise here to
make it work for investment managers
Gráinne O’Farrelly, Kroll
“
”
Pat Lardner, chief executive at the Irish Funds Industry Association, who represents over 150 members, said; “We’re seeing really vibrant growth, not just over the course of 2021, but really the last couple of years.”
He highlights from its latest economic assessment report how the number of people employed directly by either investment managers or fund management companies leapt 40% during those two years to 3,500 people. And of the 17,000 direct employees, around 6,500 of them are located outside of the centre of the city or outside of Dublin, just under 40% of the total, up from around 10% previously.
“There's always a reference to Dublin as a financial centre. But we have a national industry now because we've effectively got four other clusters outside of the Dublin area that are employing in excess of 1,000 people.
“We're now in a situation that no county in the Republic of Ireland is without somebody in our industry working. So that's been a pretty big and significant change for us.”
Another key trend Lardner picks out is the size of the organisations, with a big uplift in the number of firms that are employing 50 people, a demonstration that those people who came over and planted a flag, or set up some form of operation, have expanded and diversified those operations.
As for this year, the association has a very big legislative and policy agenda, he says, specifically around AIFMD.
On 31 March, the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) advised Irish Funds that they have approved in principle a Qualifying Investor Alternative Investment Fund (QIAIF) with a low level of exposure to cash settled Bitcoin futures traded on the CME.
“The latest notice that the Central Bank of Ireland have approved, in principle, indirect crypto exposure for a QIAIF is a welcome first for the industry in Ireland. This is the first type of indirect crypto exposure approved for a QIAIF”, he comments. There is also the Irish government’s roadmap for sustainable finance, to which Irish Funds has contributed.
“We have three very different and strong work streams on that to enable the further developments of Ireland as a centre of excellence in the whole sustainable world.”
Another key focus is on working very closely with the Central Bank of Ireland around their process for authorising products and making sure that the expertise pool is available and supporting the central bank.
“We ultimately want them to be the best national competent authority within the EU. We think that's supportive of the business and its growth.”
Lardner highlights here an inventory done in Q1 on the technology skills needed to support the industry.
“We're also getting into areas like the financial literacy for the mid-teens, not just for financial literacy sake, but also to build an awareness of this now that our industry is national.”
This approach could lead to potential career opportunities “for kids from lots of different backgrounds, who will study lots of different things, not just traditional economics”.
The training and development also extend to lifelong learning accredited designations for people working in the industry, because we know that their skills are going to change over time.
“We are running designated person forums as we have a community now of four to 500 designated persons, whether it be, for example, during the week on distribution, it could be on investment management on risk.
“We're engaging with members but also getting data and insight and information from them to support the advocacy work that we do because ultimately we're seeing the range of stakeholders that we're engaging with not only here domestically in Ireland, but critically because we have an on the ground presence in Brussels.”
He concludes: “We’re fortunate in that we have 600 people actively engaged across our 36 working groups, which gives us not only a collective firepower, but an inclusiveness around how we do things that I think is pretty well unparalleled.”
Against the backdrop of an extremely buoyant time for the industry and a raft of M&A activity, for John Bohan, co-founder and Country Head Business Development (Ireland), Apex Group, a key challenge is “managing the human resources side of the business in terms of scarcity and development within our group to ensure a unified culture”.
“In conjunction with that growth, we are exiting from a pandemic globally and potentially returning to work or, in a lot of cases, hybrid working scenarios.
“Managing that growth and building a large group with unified vision and culture within that unique environment will take innovation and a tailored approach for an evolutionary environment.
“Technology has rapidly accelerated over the pandemic period to accommodate our new virtual world and the needs of the industry – both clients and internal staff – has changed. To be competitive in both those areas we need to continue to break new ground to sustain the success that we have created over the last 18 years of the Apex Group’s history.”
What trends is he seeing developing in Dublin as an international financial centre this year and beyond?
“A number of seismic events have contributed to change in Ireland over the last number of years. Brexit, the pandemic, growth in funds/technology in core service areas for Dublin, have all resulted in an ever-changing environment.
“Over the last 30 years Ireland has established itself on the world map as a centre of excellence for the funds industry, as well as a leading jurisdiction for international technology firms to base their headquarters.
“This trend is set to continue with strong economic growth. Despite an increase in the corporation tax rates to 15%, Ireland has proven itself as delivering a high-end skilled workforce with political and economic stability that is a strong incubator for international firms.
“We see a greater focus on energy supplies to keep up with this demand, and data centre requirements for these large corporations and schemes to attract international talent, along with opening visa schemes to some of the unregistered workforce already here.”
Over at Kroll, a global firm of almost 5,000 employees in 30 countries, Gráinne O’Farrelly, managing director Financial Services Compliance & Regulation, highlights its “huge” investment funds division in Dublin which looks after €5.4trn of assets for 15,000 funds with distribution to 90 countries.
“Dublin is recognised as the worldwide expert area for investment funds. We have all of the legal and regulatory expertise here to make it work for investment managers.”
In common with many others, one of O’Farrelly’s biggest challenges is “certainly going to be continued to be remote working and most firms are going to move to a hybrid model.
“How are we going to make it work for both the employer and the employee alike? The impact that it has on firms cannot be underestimated because it's an enormous shift in working behaviours.
“It does require real management skills to figure out how to motivate a team where they are coming into the office sometimes and where not everybody in the team is present.
“People are experiencing pandemic fatigue, I would say. And so, I think the next quarter is going to be very important in figuring out how to get that hybrid model right.”
Also tied into that are labour market shortages and increased wage inflation, and that's making it an employee's market.
“Employees can more or less name their price if they have if they're good candidates and they have good experience behind them.”
A key focus this year, adds O’Farrelly, is on networking in the industry again, now that's a possibility. “Building our partnerships with our clients, making sure that we can help them do what they need to do, given what's happened over the last couple of years and working on a strategy with them.”
Business development in the region is continuing apace, she says as “Ireland is very well placed obviously post-Brexit as well, because there are still a lot of firms in the UK that are figuring out the best way forward for them.
“As a pathway into Europe, it would be one of the first places they would look to. We obviously have competition in Luxembourg. But I do think that from the UK perspective, we're probably well-placed for UK asset managers to come here.”
Furio Pietribiasi, CEO of Mediolanum International Funds, echoes this view, adding: “I'm particularly proud of the fact that this has been one record year for us in terms of results, but not simply because we have good support from the markets. More important because we receive further confirmation of the trust of our clients, about our business and the solution that we provided to the market.
“We have been able to continue to evolve our product offering, revisiting certain structure on some of the funds that we launched many years ago.”
He highlights new investment solutions such as the circular economy amid more focus in ESG investing: “This has been another important year for us in continuing our journey towards sustainability.”
From its Dublin operations, Mediolanum’s extensive distribution network is through financial advisers in Italy, Spain and Germany, with particular success around its multi-manager product. The access to local talent and high quality of life are two big reasons why Pietribiasi favours Dublin as a base for its business, which continues a journey in working with investment boutiques.
“We expect one third of our assets to be managed by boutiques and we are working with them to establish close partnerships over time. After many years of discussion, we recently awarded a mandate to KPI Global Investors, which has strategies that are particularly attractive, like water and sustainable infrastructure.”
Over the course of five decades, the Maples Group has grown from modest beginnings into one of the world's preeminent professional services firms, with operations in the Americas and Caribbean, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.
As of 31 October 2021, the Maples Group employs over 2,300 professionals worldwide, with over 440 professionals based in Ireland. The Group's Irish office was launched in 2006 and continues to serve as an important European hub for international clients doing business in and from Ireland.
O’Dwyer says: “Despite considerable logistical and other headwinds created by the pandemic since March 2020, we have remained very busy across our practice areas. Funds and Investment Management, Finance, Corporate, Tax, Employment, Financial Services Regulatory, Dispute Resolution and Insolvency and Projects and Construction have all proved resilient.
“The fact that we are a well-diversified and truly international business, with the right balance of transactional and advisory work, has definitely been an advantage to us. The team is also heavily focused on growth sectors such as fintech, alternative lending and sustainable finance. We expect these to continue to be booming sectors in Ireland.
“We also anticipate that the funds industry will continue to grow in 2022, especially as the appetite for investing in ESG funds increases and with the Investment Limited Partnership Act, which is a strong, positive example of how Ireland can compete at an international level for future investment opportunities. Striking the right balance between regulation and flexibility, it is ideally placed to meet the requirements of investors who require a regulated structure.”
For his part, Sean Hawkshaw, chief executive of KBI Global Investors, points to a very dynamic and collaborative environment between CEOs, CIOs and investment teams around Dublin.
“The Irish Association of Investment Managers, which I'm involved in, has really got an impetus and comes with common objectives clarified from a very strong group of financial companies.
With investment management booming in the general banking and financial services, there are also a lot of changes going on too.
“Two big players, Ulster Bank and KBC bank decided to move out of the Irish marketplace as others have decided to move in. So, it's a dynamic market with a lot of things changing, but all good.”
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We want the Central Bank of Ireland to be the best national competent authority within the EU. We think that's supportive of the business and its growth
Pat Lardner, Irish Funds
Industry Association
“
”
Another key focus is on working very closely with the CBI around its process for authorising products and making sure that the expertise pool is available and supporting the central bank.
“We ultimately want it to be the best national competent authority within the EU. We think that's supportive of the business and its growth.”
Lardner highlights here an inventory done in Q1 on the technology skills needed to support the industry. “We're also getting into areas like the financial literacy for the mid-teens, not just for financial literacy sake, but also to build an awareness of this now that our industry is national.”
This approach could lead to potential career opportunities “for kids from lots of different backgrounds, who will study lots of different things, not just traditional economics”. The training and development also extend to lifelong learning accredited designations for people working in the industry, because we know that their skills are going to change over time.
“We are running designated person forums as we have a community now of four to 500 designated persons, whether it be, for example, during the week on distribution, it could be on investment management on risk.
“We're engaging with members but also getting data and insight and information from them to support the advocacy work that we do because ultimately we're seeing the range of stakeholders that we're engaging with not only here domestically in Ireland, but critically because we have an on the ground presence in Brussels.”
He concludes: “We’re fortunate in that we have 600 people actively engaged across our 36 working groups, which gives us not only a collective firepower, but an inclusiveness around how we do things that I think is pretty well unparalleled.”
Pat Lardner, chief executive at the Irish Funds Industry Association, who represents over 150 members, said; “We’re seeing really vibrant growth, not just over the course of 2021, but really the last couple of years.”
He highlights from its latest economic assessment report how the number of people employed directly by either investment managers or fund management companies leapt 40% during those two years to 3,500 people. And of the 17,000 direct employees, around 6,500 of them are located outside of the centre of the city or outside of Dublin, just under 40% of the total, up from around 10% previously.
“There's always a reference to Dublin as a financial centre. But we have a national industry now because we've effectively got four other clusters outside of the Dublin area that are employing in excess of 1,000 people.
“We're now in a situation that no county in the Republic of Ireland is without somebody in our industry working. So that's been a pretty big and significant change for us.”
Another key trend Lardner picks out is the size of the organisations, with a big uplift in the number of firms that are employing 50 people, a demonstration that those people who came over and planted a flag, or set up some form of operation, have expanded and diversified those operations.
As for this year, the association has a very big legislative and policy agenda, he says, specifically around AIFMD.
On 31 March, the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) advised Irish Funds that they have approved in principle a Qualifying Investor Alternative Investment Fund (QIAIF) with a low level of exposure to cash settled Bitcoin futures traded on the CME.
“The latest notice that the CBI has approved, in principle, indirect crypto exposure for a QIAIF is a welcome first for the industry in Ireland. This is the first type of indirect crypto exposure approved for a QIAIF”, he comments. There is also the Irish government’s roadmap for sustainable finance, to which Irish Funds has contributed.
“We have three very different and strong work streams on that to enable the further developments of Ireland as a centre of excellence in the whole sustainable world.”
Another key focus is on working very closely with the CBI[CEROS OBJECT] around its process for authorising products and making sure that the expertise pool is available and supporting the central bank.
“We ultimately want it to be the best national competent authority within the EU. We think that's supportive of the business and its growth.”
Lardner highlights here an inventory done in Q1 on the technology skills needed to support the industry.
“We're also getting into areas like the financial literacy for the mid-teens, not just for financial literacy sake, but also to build an awareness of this now that our industry is national.”
This approach could lead to potential career opportunities “for kids from lots of different backgrounds, who will study lots of different things, not just traditional economics”.
The training and development also extend to lifelong learning accredited designations for people working in the industry, because we know that their skills are going to change over time.
“We are running designated person forums as we have a community now of four to 500 designated persons, whether it be, for example, during the week on distribution, it could be on investment management on risk.
“We're engaging with members but also getting data and insight and information from them to support the advocacy work that we do because ultimately we're seeing the range of stakeholders that we're engaging with not only here domestically in Ireland, but critically because we have an on the ground presence in Brussels.”
He concludes: “We’re fortunate in that we have 600 people actively engaged across our 36 working groups, which gives us not only a collective firepower, but an inclusiveness around how we do things that I think is pretty well unparalleled.”
“We have three very different and strong work streams on that to enable the further developments of Ireland as a centre of excellence in the whole sustainable world.”
Another key focus is on working very closely with the CBI[CEROS OBJECT] around its process for authorising products and making sure that the expertise pool is available and supporting the central bank.
“We ultimately want it to be the best national competent authority within the EU. We think that's supportive of the business and its growth.”
Lardner highlights here an inventory done in Q1 on the technology skills needed to support the industry.
“We're also getting into areas like the financial literacy for the mid-teens, not just for financial literacy sake, but also to build an awareness of this now that our industry is national.”
This approach could lead to potential career opportunities “for kids from lots of different backgrounds, who will study lots of different things, not just traditional economics”.
The training and development also extend to lifelong learning accredited designations for people working in the industry, because we know that their skills are going to change over time.
“We are running designated person forums as we have a community now of four to 500 designated persons, whether it be, for example, during the week on distribution, it could be on investment management on risk.
“We're engaging with members but also getting data and insight and information from them to support the advocacy work that we do because ultimately we're seeing the range of stakeholders that we're engaging with not only here domestically in Ireland, but critically because we have an on the ground presence in Brussels.”
He concludes: “We’re fortunate in that we have 600 people actively engaged across our 36 working groups, which gives us not only a collective firepower, but an inclusiveness around how we do things that I think is pretty well unparalleled.”
The shape of its international financial services industry has dramatically changed since its formation by the Irish Government in 1987, with a loss in banking jobs in contrast to big gains in fund administration, insurance, aircraft leasing and payments.
Total employment in the IFSC now stands at over 38,000, with 10,000 people employed outside of Dublin, paying over €1bn (£0.83bn) in annual corporate taxes and a further €1bn in payroll taxes.
As for the funds industry in Ireland, it continues to grow, with data from the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) at end of December 2021 showing assets in Irish-domiciled funds surpassing €4trn for the first time, a 22.5% growth across all funds, with a growth of 42.1% in exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
In 2021 total net sales into Irish-domiciled funds reached €310.37bn, of which €131.3bn has been into ETFs. This represented more than 80% of all the net sales into European ETFs, which stood at €161bn for the year. Ireland continues to be a top European domicile for ETFs, with Irish-domiciled ETF assets representing 66% of the total European ETF market. Currently, Ireland is the domicile for 5.95% of worldwide investment fund assets, making it the third largest centre in the world.
The total number of Irish-domiciled funds, including sub-funds, reached 8,363 in December 2021, up from 7,962 in December 2020.
Sectoral growth has been buoyed by strong inflows and a favourable economic environment, as global economies continue to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
International Investment spoke to some of the key players on a visit to Dublin in this special anniversary year to explore the opportunities and challenges this international centre faces in turbulent world.
Pat Lardner, chief executive at the Irish Funds Industry Association, who represents over 150 members, said; “We’re seeing really vibrant growth, not just over the course of 2021, but really the last couple of years.”
He highlights from its latest economic assessment report how the number of people employed directly by either investment managers or fund management companies leapt 40% during those two years to 3,500 people. And of the 17,000 direct employees, around 6,500 of them are located outside of the centre of the city or outside of Dublin, just under 40% of the total, up from around 10% previously.
“There's always a reference to Dublin as a financial centre. But we have a national industry now because we've effectively got four other clusters outside of the Dublin area that are employing in excess of 1,000 people.
“We're now in a situation that no county in the Republic of Ireland is without somebody in our industry working. So that's been a pretty big and significant change for us.”
Another key trend Lardner picks out is the size of the organisations, with a big uplift in the number of firms that are employing 50 people, a demonstration that those people who came over and planted a flag, or set up some form of operation, have expanded and diversified those operations.
As for this year, the association has a very big legislative and policy agenda, he says, specifically around AIFMD.
On 31 March, the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) advised Irish Funds that they have approved in principle a Qualifying Investor Alternative Investment Fund (QIAIF) with a low level of exposure to cash settled Bitcoin futures traded on the CME.
“The latest notice that the Central Bank of Ireland have approved, in principle, indirect crypto exposure for a QIAIF is a welcome first for the industry in Ireland. This is the first type of indirect crypto exposure approved for a QIAIF”, he comments. There is also the Irish government’s roadmap for sustainable finance, to which Irish Funds has contributed.
“We have three very different and strong work streams on that to enable the further developments of Ireland as a centre of excellence in the whole sustainable world.”
Another key focus is on working very closely with the Central Bank of Ireland around their process for authorising products and making sure that the expertise pool is available and supporting the central bank.
“We ultimately want them to be the best national competent authority within the EU. We think that's supportive of the business and its growth.”
He highlights here an inventory done in Q1 on the technology skills needed to support the industry.
“We're also getting into areas like the financial literacy for the mid-teens, not just for financial literacy sake, but also to build an awareness of this now that our industry is national.”
This approach could lead to potential career opportunities “for kids from lots of different backgrounds, who will study lots of different things, not just traditional economics”.
The training and development also extend to lifelong learning accredited designations for people working in the industry, because we know that their skills are going to change over time.
“We are running designated person forums as we have a community now of four to 500 designated persons, whether it be, for example, during the week on distribution, it could be on investment management on risk.
“We're engaging with members but also getting data and insight and information from them to support the advocacy work that we do because ultimately we're seeing the range of stakeholders that we're engaging with not only here domestically in Ireland, but critically because we have an on the ground presence in Brussels.”
He concludes: “We’re fortunate in that we have 600 people actively engaged across our 36 working groups, which gives us not only a collective firepower, but an inclusiveness around how we do things that I think is pretty well unparalleled.”
Against the backdrop of an extremely buoyant time for the industry and a raft of M&A activity, for John Bohan, co-founder and Country Head Business Development (Ireland), Apex Group, a key challenge is “managing the human resources side of the business in terms of scarcity and development within our group to ensure a unified culture”.
“In conjunction with that growth, we are exiting from a pandemic globally and potentially returning to work or, in a lot of cases, hybrid working scenarios.
“Managing that growth and building a large group with unified vision and culture within that unique environment will take innovation and a tailored approach for an evolutionary environment.
“Technology has rapidly accelerated over the pandemic period to accommodate our new virtual world and the needs of the industry – both clients and internal staff – has changed. To be competitive in both those areas we need to continue to break new ground to sustain the success that we have created over the last 18 years of the Apex Group’s history.”
What trends is he seeing developing in Dublin as an international financial centre this year and beyond?
“A number of seismic events have contributed to change in Ireland over the last number of years. Brexit, the pandemic, growth in funds/technology in core service areas for Dublin, have all resulted in an ever-changing environment.
“Over the last 30 years Ireland has established itself on the world map as a centre of excellence for the funds industry, as well as a leading jurisdiction for international technology firms to base their headquarters.
“This trend is set to continue with strong economic growth. Despite an increase in the corporation tax rates to 15%, Ireland has proven itself as delivering a high-end skilled workforce with political and economic stability that is a strong incubator for international firms.
“We see a greater focus on energy supplies to keep up with this demand, and data centre requirements for these large corporations and schemes to attract international talent, along with opening visa schemes to some of the unregistered workforce already here.”
Over at Kroll, a global firm of almost 5,000 employees in 30 countries, Gráinne O’Farrelly, managing director Financial Services Compliance & Regulation, highlights its “huge” investment funds division in Dublin which looks after €5.4trn of assets for 15,000 funds with distribution to 90 countries.
“Dublin is recognised as the worldwide expert area for investment funds. We have all of the legal and regulatory expertise here to make it work for investment managers.”
In common with many others, one of O’Farrelly’s biggest challenges is “certainly going to be continued to be remote working and most firms are going to move to a hybrid model.
“How are we going to make it work for both the employer and the employee alike? The impact that it has on firms cannot be underestimated because it's an enormous shift in working behaviours.
“It does require real management skills to figure out how to motivate a team where they are coming into the office sometimes and where not everybody in the team is present.
“People are experiencing pandemic fatigue, I would say. And so, I think the next quarter is going to be very important in figuring out how to get that hybrid model right.”
Also tied into that are labour market shortages and increased wage inflation, and that's making it an employee's market.
“Employees can more or less name their price if they have if they're good candidates and they have good experience behind them.”
A key focus this year, adds O’Farrelly, is on networking in the industry again, now that's a possibility. “Building our partnerships with our clients, making sure that we can help them do what they need to do, given what's happened over the last couple of years and working on a strategy with them.”
Business development in the region is continuing apace, she says as “Ireland is very well placed obviously post-Brexit as well, because there are still a lot of firms in the UK that are figuring out the best way forward for them.
“As a pathway into Europe, it would be one of the first places they would look to. We obviously have competition in Luxembourg. But I do think that from the UK perspective, we're probably well-placed for UK asset managers to come here.”
Furio Pietribiasi, CEO of Mediolanum International Funds, echoes this view, adding: “I'm particularly proud of the fact that this has been one record year for us in terms of results, but not simply because we have good support from the markets. More important because we receive further confirmation of the trust of our clients, about our business and the solution that we provided to the market.
“We have been able to continue to evolve our product offering, revisiting certain structure on some of the funds that we launched many years ago.”
He highlights new investment solutions such as the circular economy amid more focus in ESG investing: “This has been another important year for us in continuing our journey towards sustainability.”
From its Dublin operations, Mediolanum’s extensive distribution network is through financial advisers in Italy, Spain and Germany, with particular success around its multi-manager product. The access to local talent and high quality of life are two big reasons why Pietribiasi favours Dublin as a base for its business, which continues a journey in working with investment boutiques.
“We expect one third of our assets to be managed by boutiques and we are working with them to establish close partnerships over time. After many years of discussion, we recently awarded a mandate to KPI Global Investors, which has strategies that are particularly attractive, like water and sustainable infrastructure.”
Over at Legal & General Investment Management Ireland, managing director Eve Finn also highlights its focus on “ensuring that we're a sustainable investment partner for our clients” on net zero and climate-related goals. She says this year is seeing “ESG flavours coming through all of the products that we're launching at the moment.
“It’s really important for our business to demonstrate our ESG credentials. But we've been mindful that we have clients and lots of jurisdictions with different local requirements.
“And our programmes are focused in that local way to help us do that as efficiently as we can for our clients on making sure that we're demonstrating the value to them.
“We’ve been trying to come up with sort of comparable standards. We're all investors, and we're trying to pick out the ones that we like, that fit our profile – it's a complete minefield.”
LGIM is the asset management arm of the Legal and General group, headquartered in the UK but with a global footprint, and in the top 15 managers globally.
The Dublin business, which has been operational since 2018, serves clients within Europe: “We set this up as part of our Brexit planning, but also as part of our growth strategy into our wider plans around and increasing our footprints and becoming a larger player in European and institutional and retail markets.”
Finn says: “We've been building an agile team here in Ireland, very small, perfectly formed of nearly 40 people. We've got eight different nationalities in the team, which is brilliant, and we're bringing in other people, working with companies to effect change.”
Eimear O’Dwyer, co-head of Maples and Calder's Funds & Investment Management team in the Maples Group's Dublin office, specialises in the structuring of UCITS and AIFs as ICAVs, ILPs and 1907 Limited Partnerships. She is also chair of the Irish Funds Legal Working Group and a member of the Irish Chapter of 100 Women in Finance.
Over the course of five decades, the Maples Group has grown from modest beginnings into one of the world's preeminent professional services firms, with operations in the Americas and Caribbean, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.
As of 31 October 2021, the Maples Group employs over 2,300 professionals worldwide, with over 440 professionals based in Ireland. The Group's Irish office was launched in 2006 and continues to serve as an important European hub for international clients doing business in and from Ireland.
O’Dwyer says: “Despite considerable logistical and other headwinds created by the pandemic since March 2020, we have remained very busy across our practice areas. Funds and Investment Management, Finance, Corporate, Tax, Employment, Financial Services Regulatory, Dispute Resolution and Insolvency and Projects and Construction have all proved resilient.
“The fact that we are a well-diversified and truly international business, with the right balance of transactional and advisory work, has definitely been an advantage to us. The team is also heavily focused on growth sectors such as fintech, alternative lending and sustainable finance. We expect these to continue to be booming sectors in Ireland.
“We also anticipate that the funds industry will continue to grow in 2022, especially as the appetite for investing in ESG funds increases and with the Investment Limited Partnership Act, which is a strong, positive example of how Ireland can compete at an international level for future investment opportunities. Striking the right balance between regulation and flexibility, it is ideally placed to meet the requirements of investors who require a regulated structure.”
For his part, Sean Hawkshaw, chief executive of KBI Global Investors, points to a very dynamic and collaborative environment between CEOs, CIOs and investment teams around Dublin.
“The Irish Association of Investment Managers, which I'm involved in, has really got an impetus and comes with common objectives clarified from a very strong group of financial companies.
With investment management booming in the general banking and financial services, there are also have a lot of changes going on too.
“Two big players, Ulster Bank and KBC bank decided to move out of the Irish marketplace as others have decided to move in. So, it's a dynamic market with a lot of things changing, but all good.”
We’re seeing really vibrant growth, not just over the course of 2021, but really the last couple of years
Pat Lardner, Irish Funds Industry Association
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Pat Lardner, chief executive at the Irish Funds Industry Association, who represents over 150 members, said; “We’re seeing really vibrant growth, not just over the course of 2021, but really the last couple of years.”
He highlights from its latest economic assessment report how the number of people employed directly by either investment managers or fund management companies leapt 40% during those two years to 3,500 people. And of the 17,000 direct employees, around 6,500 of them are located outside of the centre of the city or outside of Dublin, just under 40% of the total, up from around 10% previously.
“There's always a reference to Dublin as a financial centre. But we have a national industry now because we've effectively got four other clusters outside of the Dublin area that are employing in excess of 1,000 people.
“We're now in a situation that no county in the Republic of Ireland is without somebody in our industry working. So that's been a pretty big and significant change for us.”
Another key trend Lardner picks out is the size of the organisations, with a big uplift in the number of firms that are employing 50 people, a demonstration that those people who came over and planted a flag, or set up some form of operation, have expanded and diversified those operations.
As for this year, the association has a very big legislative and policy agenda, he says, specifically around AIFMD.
On 31 March, the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) advised Irish Funds that they have approved in principle a Qualifying Investor Alternative Investment Fund (QIAIF) with a low level of exposure to cash settled Bitcoin futures traded on the CME.
“The latest notice that the CBI has approved, in principle, indirect crypto exposure for a QIAIF is a welcome first for the industry in Ireland. This is the first type of indirect crypto exposure approved for a QIAIF”, he comments. There is also the Irish government’s roadmap for sustainable finance, to which Irish Funds has contributed.
“We have three very different and strong work streams on that to enable the further developments of Ireland as a centre of excellence in the whole sustainable world.”
Another key focus is on working very closely with the CBI around its process for authorising products and making sure that the expertise pool is available and supporting the central bank.
“We ultimately want it to be the best national competent authority within the EU. We think that's supportive of the business and its growth.”
Lardner highlights here an inventory done in Q1 on the technology skills needed to support the industry.
“We're also getting into areas like the financial literacy for the mid-teens, not just for financial literacy sake, but also to build an awareness of this now that our industry is national.”
This approach could lead to potential career opportunities “for kids from lots of different backgrounds, who will study lots of different things, not just traditional economics”.
The training and development also extend to lifelong learning accredited designations for people working in the industry, because we know that their skills are going to change over time.
“We are running designated person forums as we have a community now of four to 500 designated persons, whether it be, for example, during the week on distribution, it could be on investment management on risk.
“We're engaging with members but also getting data and insight and information from them to support the advocacy work that we do because ultimately we're seeing the range of stakeholders that we're engaging with not only here domestically in Ireland, but critically because we have an on the ground presence in Brussels.”
He concludes: “We’re fortunate in that we have 600 people actively engaged across our 36 working groups, which gives us not only a collective firepower, but an inclusiveness around how we do things that I think is pretty well unparalleled.”
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Building a future
Building a future
