THE IRISH Funds Industry Association has placed Irish experts in IDA Ireland offices in Britain and the US in an attempt to enhance the industry’s international profile. Fund industry experts are already in place in the IDA’s London, New York, Boston, Chicago and Atlanta offices.
Ireland administers more than 40 per cent of the world’s hedge funds, while more than 7 per cent of global hedge funds are domiciled here. While Ireland’s main markets are the UK and the US, it is understood the IDA may pursue a similar policy in Paris and Frankfurt.
More than 300 fund experts attended the international conference of the Irish Funds Industry Association yesterday in Dublin.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the conference the Irish funds industry had been one of State’s main success stories since the foundation of the IFSC 25 years ago.
He highlighted the areas of green finance and Islamic finance as areas of major growth potential, pointing out that Ireland had double-taxation agreements with Islamic states such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
Association chairman Ken Owens said Ireland remained the fastest growing of the major cross-border UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities) domiciles.
“Opening these representative offices means we can be on the ground in two of our primary markets to promote Ireland as the jurisdiction of choice for internationally distributed investment funds.”
Director of markets supervision at the Central Bank Gareth Murphy outlined the approach of the Central Bank to the regulation and supervision of the funds industry in Ireland. In terms of the new corporate governance code for the industry, he said the Central Bank did not believe that restricting the number of directorships individuals are permitted to hold would be appropriate for the funds industry.
“Instead, we expect directors to be realistic about their time commitments and that directors will be appointed having regard for an assessment of time required.”
While the presence of investment managers, lawyers and other service providers on boards can be “extremely valuable”, he said, such directors should not be considered independent for the purposes of the code.
