Banker warns of more job losses at IFSC this year

Jobs will be lost in Dublin's International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) this year, a prominent member of the centre's funds community has warned.Mr Willie Slattery, chief executive of State Street International (Ireland) and chairman of industry body Financial Services Ireland, said he expected job numbers in the IFSC to fall over the course of 2003.

"Not only will employment not grow but it may decline. I think there may be redundancies in the IFSC this year," he said.

Mr Slattery's comments, made in the course of an interview with The Irish Times, come as at least two international banks reconsider their presence in Dublin.

Dresdner Bank, one of a number of German financial institutions under strain from domestic economic pressures, is known to be mulling the closure of its IFSC bank, Dresdner Bank (Ireland).

Dutch bank, ABN Amro confirmed earlier this week that it was shedding 17 jobs as part of a global reorganisation.

Dresdner, which has operated in Dublin since 1989 and was one of the first German banks to take up an IFSC licence, has briefed its 20 staff on the review process.

A spokeswoman for the bank said a decision on the operation's future would be made shortly.

It is expected that the company will be sacrificed as part of a wide-ranging restructuring at its parent. Dresdner, which is owned by Allianz, recorded a loss of €935 million last year and is in the process of making 11,000 staff redundant in various locations.

Dresdner's IFSC banking activities include corporate lending and the provision of corporate services for agency treasury companies. Dresdner also operates a fund management company in the IFSC, but it is understood this business is not under threat.

A spokesman for IDA Ireland, the body with responsibility for marketing international financial services in the Republic, said that while banking activities may have weakened in the IFSC, other activities - particularly funds and insurance - remain buoyant.

Industry estimates suggest that banks account for about 10 per cent of total IFSC employment, which numbers about 9,000.