FINANCE DUBLIN Yearbook 2011 launched by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan

March 18th 2011: The new Minister for Finance Michael Noonan expressed his support for the development of the IFSC and underlined the importance of continuing to promote foreign direct investment in Ireland at a presentation of the new edition of the FInance Dublin Yearbook to him at Government buiidlings by Ken O'Brien, editor of Finance Dublin.

He said that there could be optimism that Ireland's banking and financial difficulties will be overcome in the course of the coming five years, but said that the coming six months are going to be particularly challenging.

USA No 1 investor in IFSC

A study of the parent jurisdictions of the 450 'standalone' companies in the IFSC contained in the 2011 has found that most represented parent country for IFSC companies is the United States of America, which is the home jurisdiction of 102 (23 p.c.) of the IFSC’s companies.

The USA is followed by Ireland with 69 and next is the United Kingdom, with 44 companies. A total of 274 come from common law jurisdictions, while 161 have parents in other (non common law) countries in the European Union). Of these 38 are from Germany, 26 France, 26 Netherlands, and 25 from Italy.

The Yearbook is a shop window for new overseas direct foreign investment in Ireland's International Financial Services and Professional Services Industry, and it contains an extensive compendium of information and statistics on Irish FDI.

It says "The main reason for this resilience has been (a) the (financial) services basis of the IFSC (originally rooted in its ‘backoffice’ origins in the late 1980s and 1990s), and (b) its ‘entrepot’ nature (not being host to credit or derivative credit creating institutions underpinned by explicit or implicit guarantees by the sovereign)."

"The IFSC’s resilience has been tested, and highlighted, by the parallel, but unrelated, domestic banking crisis that engulfed the domestic banking sector in Ireland, following the collapse of Lehmans Bros in 2008. Although covered by the same EU and Irish regulatory framework, (the Irish Central Bank) the IFSC represents a distinct regulatory agenda for Irish and EU regulators. "

Dublin most likely European financial centre to rise in the future

This point above is highlighted in an analysis* , published separately (March 21st) by the GFCI (Global Financial Centres Index) who, while reporting on a further slippage in its biannual survey of Dublin's global ranking (to No 32 in the world), quotes the above point in its report, from Finance Dublin, about the IFSC (that the IFSC represents a distinct regulatory agenda for Irish and EU regulators), and (2) that, of centres that are expected to rise in the future, Dublin is listed as sixth most likely in the world, and the most likely European centre to rise.

* "Dublin’s International Financial Services Centre is separate from the domestic banks and represents a distinct regulatory agenda for the EU and Irish regulators (quoting the IMF's first Interim report on Ireland in January)" . "The trouble that the domestic banks find themselves in has, however, continued to damage Dublin’s reputation.", says the newly published Index, which is published in London by Z Yen, and sponsored by Qatar Financial centre.