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Saturday, 27th April 2024 |
| Memoirs of the IFSC - Part 1 |
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| Key figures look back, including Padraig O’hUiginn, Secretary of the Department of the Taoiseach and chairman of Ireland’s International Financial Services Committee in 1987, Michael Buckley, Group Chief Executive, AIB, Don Bergin, former head of Department of Finance IFSC Division, William Slattery, CEO State Street International Ireland and chairman of Financial Services Ireland, Maurice O’Connell, Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, 1995 - 2002, Liam Donlon, Managing Director, KBC Finance Ireland, Seamus P?irc?ir, Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners 1984 - 1987, Ernst-Richard Matthiensen, Former Managing Director of Dresdner Bank Ireland, and David Hanna, Divisional Manager, IDA Ireland. |
PPadraig O’hUiginn, Secretary of the Department of the Taoiseach and chairman of Ireland’s International Financial Services Committee in 1987 - The IFSC was part of the Programme for National Recovery, the 1987 blueprint for the revival of the economy and the reform of the public finances, and was one of the specific employment creation projects in the Programme. Its success was, therefore, essential.
I was confident of its success because of the Government commitment to whatever was required to establish it and because I trusted the judgement of Dermot Desmond whose brainchild it was.
His financial judgement was spectacularly justified in the extraordinary success of the IFSC, and has since also been amply demonstrated.
To some extent it was not clear which way the IFSC would work out. At the early meetings of the IFSC Committee - which we established as a unique combination of public and private interests -there were many who queried precisely what activities would be attracted to the centre. I suggested that the solution was to draft a wide definition of financial services in the legislation, and let market demand provide the answers. This solution worked though some amendments were made later to extend the scope of the original definition. A wide variety of services now operate in the centre.
The centre’s success was due to the following:
• The 10 per cent tax relief within the EU
• The availability of a suitable workforce
• The availability of suitable offices at reasonable rents
• Dublin’s time-zone, its telecommunications and education facilities
Above all the speed and the simplicity of the system we established to authorise location in the centre was a major attraction as compared with other possible locations in the EU.
The continued maintenance of the original momentum suggests that the IFSC will continue to be a success. We must however, remain competitive on the salaries front and in availability of staff. The profits tax advantage must also be maintained.
We must also seek to identify new services or products that could be attracted. I regret that the legislation passed to enable private trusts to be established was omitted in the Finance Acts - an extraordinary oversight that should be corrected and would bring large business and employment to the centre.
The successful experience of most companies in the centre will ensure its original growth. I expect that in 15 years time the centre will have doubled in employment to 20-30,000. A good measure of the success achieved to date is that even at the low tax rate, the centre yielded •700 million in tax to the exchequer in 2002.
Michael Buckley, Group Chief Executive, AIB - I was involved with Dermot Desmond in 1986 in developing the initial proposals to establish Dublin as a centre for international financial services. I remember it clearly as a ‘big hairy idea’. It was sold to the incoming Government as a necessary and exciting developmental project during a period when fiscal austerity was the main prescription, which they needed to follow.
The next couple of years were of the utmost importance in obtaining the necessary approvals from the European Commission. This approval combined with the enactment by the Oireachtas of the relevant domestic enabling legislation allowed for the concept to become a real marketable package by 1988.
Notwithstanding the great efforts made to create the right environment for an International Financial Centre the task of attracting significant early projects was clearly of critical importance. The support of the major domestic financial institutions that became ‘anchor clients’ in the docklands site was also vital in creating the necessary early momentum.
Whilst the challenges were real and clearly identifiable, I also felt that, if the appropriate level of co-operation between the public and private sector could be combined with an energised marketing campaign, then the ingredients were there for success.
Nevertheless, in my view the ultimate success of the IFSC was nothing short of extraordinary. The size and number of international institutions that were attracted in banking, insurance, funds administration and corporate treasury made Dublin a significant global financial centre in all these areas.
The IFSC was a success in my view primarily because of the excellent working arrangements between the private and the public sector. The IFSC product was clearly defined around the favourable taxation benefits and the capability of an educated workforce. These factors combined with the willingness of the authorities to meet and discuss the specific requirements of prospective corporations made for a competitive product offering.
Good products still needed to be sold however. The enthusiasm with which the IFSC was marketed throughout the world by state and private enterprises was of vital importance, especially in the early days. As important was the favourable experience gained by the international corporations that established in the IFSC as this ensured the momentum was created to encourage further development.
The IFSC can continue to be a success, but there are undoubtedly many new and real challenges. There is serious international competition for this business both from the traditional European centres of Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland and Holland as well as the new financial centres such as Budapest. Other non-European countries such as India and Australia are also looking to make an impact in the provision of services to this industry.
The success of the IFSC has resulted in new problems for the industry in Ireland. Staff costs (including employers’ PRSI), and accommodation costs for office and private living space have increased significantly when compared to our international competitors. Other operating costs from insurance rates to entertainment are also becoming more expensive.
These factors, when combined with an inadequate public transport and health system and unacceptably high inflation levels are putting pressure on the competitiveness of Ireland.
If the success of the IFSC has proved one thing, it has proved the mobility of capital. We must be as diligent going forward in ensuring that we apply the resources both public and private to maintain the competitive environment. We must continue to innovate and develop products that address the concerns and requirements of the new international financial services industry.
I think we need to have very clearly defined objectives for what we expect from the financial services industry in Ireland. Many of the benefits that attracted the companies in the past were predicated on a favourable tax regime that has now changed due to legislative changes in many of our main trading countries.
I believe it is imperative that we rediscover the original hunger and ambition that created the IFSC and that a new vision of what it can become is worked out between the private and public sector. That should create an engagement to work together to achieve these clearly defined objectives. I do not doubt the enthusiasm and ambition of the participants.
I believe the environment for financial services over the next 15 years will be dominated by greater international regulation, increasingly mobile capital and increasingly complex products.
Ireland will be well placed to adapt to this environment. If we continue to invest in our workforce to ensure that necessary skill levels are available to meet the demands of a global financial services industry.
A sustainable industry will be founded principally on knowledge, excellence and infrastructure. An ability to adapt quickly and thoroughly to a changing world regulatory and legislation environment will be paramount.
Don Bergin, ex Department of Finance and publisher of Public Affairs Ireland - I took over the IFSC desk in the Department of Finance in about 1990. The Department had been concerned that the IFSC initiative would lead to a loss of corporation tax revenue. That was soon shown to be off the mark, by a long way. One of the first things I had to do was renegotiate with Brussels on an extension of the approval for the tax regime, which was agreed out to 2005. Another was to try to get the building programme for the next phase kick started.
It may not generally be appreciated now but the IFSC initiative did actually need quite a bit of nurturing from official sources in those early years.
Again it may not now be appreciated that the IFSC was such ‘a close run thing’. October 1987 saw a stock market crash just as the IFSC was being launched. The years afterwards were years of international recession and coincided with domestic cutbacks during the ‘Mac the knife’ years.
Why the IFSC was such a success is a complex question, factors contributing to the success included the usual suspects such as: low tax, well educated, plentiful workforce, relatively low wage costs, adaptive and responsive regulatory regime, public/private clearing and other groups, rapidly improving economic conditions from about 1993, EU single market type initiatives such as the UCITs Directive.
But in addition, perhaps there was that unidentifiable factor of the right combination of officials, politicians, and business people, people who had ‘the right stuff’ for the purpose and for the time.
The IFSC can certainly continue to be a success, so long as we continue to adapt quickly and effectively to new products/new opportunities/new pressures on costs, etc.
A constant striving after excellence in every thing we do will be needed for the Centre to remain a success. If I were to finger one aspect in particular, I’d say we need a constant supply of top quality people from our schools and colleges, and close collaboration on the content of business and commerce courses between some of our third level institutions and IFSC firms.
Looking into the crystal ball, the physical development and transport infrastructure of the area will no doubt be completed in fifteen years. But the concept of the IFSC itself has already changed since the introduction of the 12.5 per cent corporation tax regime generally (though many companies have the 10 per cent rate until 2005). We now have an all-Ireland financial services industry.
The phrase, ‘IFSC’ will denote a financial district which, with the ending of double rent relief and the imposition of rates, will have to compete with other parts of the city and country on the same terms. The real question now is can we have a vibrant and continually growing financial services industry in the IFSC area and Dublin generally into the future? I believe the answer to that question is yes, but the one constant is ‘change’.
William Slattery, CEO State Street International Ireland and chairman of Financial Services Ireland - I was the Central Bank employee responsible for creating supervisory policy for the IFSC and for managing the group, which supervised IFSC companies on a day to day basis. I was a member of the Certification Advisory Committee established by the Department of Finance and am currently Chief Executive of State Street International.
The IFSC was a bold visionary concept, which appeared to me to be over ambitious in terms of the claims that were made for it. Nevertheless I felt that even a modest success would be positive as it would create badly needed employment opportunities while improving the scale and skill base of the Irish financial services industry.
It has turned out to be a far greater success than I expected (and I was definitely on the positive side of the spectrum of the broader financial and public sector community). The IFSC has been largely responsible for the creation of a highly impressive new office and residential district (still not known by most Dubliners). Around 11,000 direct employees, significant indirect added value and an extension of financial services activities into other parts of the country offer an undoubted testament to its success.
One of the reasons for its success was that Ireland had a large pool of educated employees and an existing base of financial and professional services skills at a time when other locations were at full employment.
The second key reason for it’s success was that all the public sector authorities with responsibilities relating to financial services were proactively committed to responding to the developmental needs of the international financial sector, facilitated by the co-ordination and encouragement of the Department of the Taoiseach. This coordinated pro-activeness would not have occurred I believe without the keen interest in the success of the IFSC of various Taoisigh and Ministers for Finance throughout the period.
I am certain it will continue to be a success. It is just a question of how successful it will be. There is no doubt that the current environment is challenging particularly because much of the global financial services industry is in retrenchment and this is inevitably impacting on some IFSC operations and on business growth in general. Further, competition from other jurisdictions is becoming intense as they are also experiencing challenging conditions and have seen the results of the proactive approach which Ireland has adopted. There is also a feeling that the competitiveness of the financial services industry is now taken somewhat for granted and that the original degree of urgency, which characterised the public sector response to the needs of the industry, has diminished in recent years.
It is more important than ever that there is a focused and timely responsiveness across the whole spectrum of public sector interaction with the international financial sector to the needs of the sector. The global financial services industry and the international tax, legislative and regulatory landscape is continuously changing and the Irish environment needs not only to keep up with these changes but to anticipate them as far as possible. In partnership with the public sector we need to identify early trends and introduce the necessary legislative, tax and regulatory change to facilitate the necessary innovation here. This is not rocket science nor is it a perfect process. What it involves is a process of continuous review and action some of which may turn out to be premature or unnecessary with the benefit of hindsight. Sometimes it may necessarily involve the abandonment of previously firmly held policy positions.
It is also important that policy changes introduced for domestic reasons, a good deal of which may, in any event be questionable on their merits, do not adversely impact on the competitiveness of the international sector, if we want it to thrive.
As to what the centre will look like in 15 years time, I’m sure that if you had asked that question 15 years ago the answers would be comical to read today and I feel the same may well apply to today’s answers in 15 years time.
What I would like to see and believe we substantially could see, if we optimise our competitive environment, is an industry employing between 20,000 and 40,000 people which is the global leader in servicing internationally marketed sophisticated investment fund and life assurance products extending into collateral areas such as software and ancillary services. That industry is a leader in cross border financial structuring, including but not restricted to administering and listing such structures. It should have 20 or more large full service internationally oriented specialist banking and investment management firms together with 50+ boutique firms. It is the leading international insurance and reinsurance centre and is prominent in a significant industry segment, which doesn’t exist today.
Maurice O’Connell, Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, 1995 - 2002 - The IFSC was a great ambition, a great vision. There had been no great tradition of financial services here. It took great foresight and organisation to translate a derelict site into an international financial services centre and attract most of the big international names in the space of a few years.
The IFSC quickly exceeded expectations. While ambitious employment targets were headline at the outset, few really believed that they might be achieved in a hurry. Full credit to our own banks for leading the way in locating at the centre.
The key to success of the centre was absolute political belief and commitment. This set the tone for a very efficient and disciplined marketing campaign and for excellent co-operation among the public servants charged with the responsibility of getting the centre up and running.
As regards the continued success of the centre, critical mass is now well established and Dublin is known internationally as a significant location for financial services
Financial services can be very mobile internationally and competition will probably be more intense than before. There is no room for complacency. We must continue to provide the right conditions for success in terms of personnel, regulation, tax regime, communications facilities and general economic stability and competitiveness.
As for the next fifteen years, the ring fence is gone but the IFSC will continue to be the hub for financial services in Ireland. A pioneering spirit was one of the hallmarks of the first fifteen years. This spirit will be consistently renewed.
Liam Donlon, Managing Director, KBC Finance Ireland - Coming to it in 1987 from the perspective of a well-established Irish Bank (IIB Bank) and a subsidiary of an international banking group, we saw the concept of the IFSC as an opportunity to develop our Irish based businesses internationally.
The IFSC seemed like an enormous opportunity to build on and develop our own Irish based international financing activity. Our parent, now KBC Bank, enthusiastically embraced and supported us in the idea and the key was to have a suitable part of the international business of the bank allocated to the IFSC so that we could control its development from there.
While the tax rate was an important incentive in the beginning, it was not of itself going to generate business and therefore the other incentives such as people availability and the supportive climate generally, were the most important.
In summary, we saw the centre as providing enormous prospects for development as well as providing much needed opportunity for a growing number of business graduates. The re-development of the whole Docks area was of course an added benefit.
To the extent that it has been a success, the concept of the IFSC has worked well although its development has sometimes being in a stop/start way.
It did attract a large number of financial institutions as expected. The mix of businesses within the centre is quite different from what it seemed like in the beginning, e.g. funds administration/management did not figure prominently in the early stages, but subsequently did become one of the big success areas of the centre whereas, on the other hand, large ticket financing activity, one of the key initial focuses, has not developed in as big a way as seemed then.
In our own case, we gradually developed the range of our activities, from aircraft finance to project finance, then adding shipping and ultimately became the centre for all global structured finance activities of our bank. To extend our global coverage, we opened offices in five other cities, each reporting into Dublin.
Perhaps the most important reason behind the success of the IFSC was the enthusiastic and supportive way in which the Governmental and regulatory authorities supported the concept. The clear support for making the concept work at the highest level of government spread to governmental departments and regulatory agencies and meant that barriers were quickly dealt with.
The development of the licenses was also dealt with pragmatically and effectively. At the same time, the process was controlled to ensure that the tax incentives of the centre would not be abused, and the centre would be accepted internationally.
The professional services infrastructure in the country was first class, and finally, the intensive marketing of the centre in the early years was also very effective.
In order for the IFSC to continue to be a success, we need to recognise the changing environment and adjust to it, going forward. With the equalisation of corporate tax rates, the IFSC as such will not have the same attraction and we need to ensure that the concept does not dissipate but that the focus moves to Dublin itself being seen as an important financial centre.
There are a number of significant challenges to be dealt with, as always, in addressing the future including:
• The general rationalisation occurring globally in the financial services industry and the increase in the cost base in Ireland relative to other locations in recent years and the fact that we are no longer seen as a low cost location;
• The attitude towards financial institutions generally in Ireland from some authorities which has also impacted on IFSC operations in a way which has caused some concern;
• The limited availability of experienced personnel in some areas of business, which is making it difficult to develop beyond a certain scale.
We can certainly overcome these issues but they need to be addressed.
In particular, we should seek to have more front office activity, building on the experience financial institutions have gained over the last fifteen years in operating here.
To do this we need to regenerate the interest and enthusiasm that existed in the early years of the centre. Greater interaction between the financial institutions and the Government and regulatory authorities should be encouraged. We should seek to return to the level of co-operation, which existed, in the early stages.
The marketing and promotion of the centre (or Dublin as a centre) should be revived once the revised strategy has been determined. We should seek to encourage the development of (small) indigenous Irish owned service or boutique type specialist operations alongside the multi-national subsidiaries.
Hopefully in fifteen years time, Dublin itself will be talked about as a significant financial centre and the concept of the IFSC will have been absorbed into a much bigger operation.
Seamus P?irc?ir, Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners 1984 - 1987 - There are a number of versions of the origins of the IFSC, who was/were the begetters. All I know for certain is that it began for me with the setting up of a special committee, the IFSC Committee, in the Taoiseach’s Department early in 1987, shortly after Mr. CJ Haughey had become Taoiseach. I was included in that committee because I was at the time the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners. I remained a member of the Committee, and llater, of one of the specialist groups into which its functions were divided for almost ten years. I am confining my comments to the IFSC Committee because I believe that the Committee was key to the evolution and development of what the concept of a financial centre could become, and was critical to the success of the IFSC.
The Committee became the forum for discussion about the nature of the project, the scope and limitations, which would define the development of a financial centre in our particular circumstances. It allowed a concept - or a dream - to crystallise into what was practical. It was the clearing house for translating proposals into action and was an early model of co-operation between the public and the private sectors. (A member from the business side of the Committee summed up one of the early meetings as characterised by ‘the sound of axes grinding’!)
The economic and social circumstances of the time reflected a state in crisis; the outlook was gloomy. The proposed financial centre became something positive, a symbol of hope, in a climate of defeat; it became the inspiration for optimism, for evoking a determination that we would succeed.
Mr Padraig O’hUiginn was chairman of the Committee. Later when Mr Paddy Teahon succeeded O’hUiginn as secretary, he became chairman of the Committee. The Committee’s business was then parcelled out among specialist ‘working groups’, banking, collective investment funds etc. Overall surveillance was maintained by the ‘Clearing Goup’ under the chairmanship of the secretary of the Taoiseach’s Department. The working groups were each able to develop its respective specialty more effectively than the single central committee which by then had become too large and the proposals had become more detailed.
The IFSC Committee included representatives from the banks, financial industries, the Central Bank, the Stock Exchange, the Departments of the Taoiseach, Finance, the Revenue Commissioners and the IDA.
As the work of the IFSC Committee developed other departmental representatives would also be called in. The decisions of the Committee carried the authority of the Toaiseach’s support within the public sector. The Industrial Development Authority (IDA) had a key role both on the IFSC Committee and in the marketing and promotion of the IFSC. The IDA had a long-established network of offices which became the organising centre for various promotional approaches to the financial sectors abroad. Several of the legal and accountancy firms organised their own in-house specialists in financial undertakings. All these energies combined to launch an all-out campaign of promoting the new financial centre.
The necessary legislation was put in place, in most cases, with commendable urgency. The promotional exercise was supported by the practical demonstration of the official support of the Government and Parliament.
Ernst-Richard Matthiensen, Former Managing Director of Dresdner Bank Ireland - Time flies - when Dresdner Bank Group applied for its license to operate within the IFSC back in December 1988, the year 2000 (the first deadline terminating the 10 per cent tax regime) appeared so far away that hardly anyone of us thought beyond that date.
When WW II ended in 1945, no one in Germany ever thought that ten years later those years would become famous around the globe for the ‘Economic Miracle’, which West Germany experienced.
Some 25 years later in Ireland, I experienced the same entrepreneurial spirit, the same upbeat mood and the same determination of the Irish people to take their (economic) fate into their own hands, thereby creating another economic miracle. Because of this positive environment, those years, when I was an active participant within the IFSC, count as some of the most fruitful and rewarding ones of my professional life.
As is well kown, the vision of the ‘Founding Fathers’ of the IFSC originally was to create some kind of an efficient and competent ‘Back Office’ to London’s growing international trading activities, complementing this pool of opportunities with various financial services.
Although this perception was not without logic and substance, we at Dresdner had at that time already a much wider scope of activities in mind - tapping the international capital markets for refinancing purposes and creating an international asset management operation. Thanks to the support of the IDA under the leadership of Padraic White and Kieran Mc Gowan, but most of all thanks to the determination of Finance Minister Reynolds and Revenue Commissioner Frank Cassels to open up new avenues, suddenly a different kind of activities than originally envisaged, began thriving in the IFSC.
To answer the question of whether it worked out the way I had expected, one has to keep in mind that my own expectations, of course, were linked to the overall success of the IFSC, but mainly focused on expanding our own activities within the framework of the IFSC.
There is no doubt that the IFSC overall became a huge success, surpassing everybody’s hopes and expectations.
The scope of Dresdner’s activities was much wider than anticipated originally, and the overall positive trend nurtured hopes for further enlargement. However things change - what was feasible yesterday is not feasible tomorrow. But, at the same time other lucrative avenues open up, are pursued and thrive. That is what business is all about and the development of the IFSC is witness to this.
The decisive factor of the success right at the outset must be contributed to the vision of a few daring and talented Irishmen (e.g. Padraig O hUiginn and Dermot Desmond come to my mind), who were able to convince the political establishment and the unions that it was time to bring Ireland’s economy out of the doldrums. This concerted effort until today is the basis for the unbelievable development Ireland has experienced. The key elements were:
• Creating wealth through productivity
• Creating an educational system, which was able to ‘produce’ a well-educated work force.
• Creating a well-designed monetary policy and supervision by the Central Bank.
• Establishing a world wide double taxation network and creating a favorable tax regime recognized by the EU Authorities.
• Establishing an integrated information system between the various Ministries, Government agencies, the Central Bank, the IDA, IBEC and the financial community as a whole, to ensure that there was a continued dialogue. This kept the IFSC competitive and saved it from over-regulation.
As to whether the IFSC can continue to be a success and what will be needed for it to continue, I think these two questions are interrelated. Like the tax regime, which already had to undergo a substantial structural change in order to be recognised internationally in the future, so also the financial sector must expand beyond the present boundaries of the IFSC. This process is already underway.
The general economic and financial environment must be kept open to innovation, stay competitive and well functioning. The open dialogue between the various players as demonstrated above must continue and enjoy top priority at all times.
The political establishment in Ireland should always keep in mind that it will be imperative to maintain at all times a certain autonomy in economic and financial matters within the framework of the EU. A dedication to free markets and a restraint in fiscal policy, which encourages the Irish people take care of themselves and not to rely on Government hand- outs, will be the key to the economic well being of Ireland as a whole and the IFSC in particular.
David Hanna, Divisional Manager, IDA Ireland - The IFSC was a bold and visionary project, which has substantially exceeded the goals set for it when it was conceived fifteen years ago. Its launch, at a difficult time, was successful because of the absolute determination to overcome all obstacles to its progress, by a powerful alliance of public and private sector institutions, working in a framework of strong political support.
For the fledgling IFSC, the crucible in which opportunities were debated and prioritised, goals set, new legislation proposed and performance evaluated, was the Steering Committee in the Department of the Taoiseach, chaired by Secretary-General Padraig O hUiginn. He had assembled a group of powerful executives who had real influence in the institutions they represented.
When Padraig White, CEO of IDA, called me in Los Angeles in Autumn 1987, and told me that on returning from my posting as Director West Coast, I would have the new marketing assignment for the IFSC, I was quite apprehensive. There were high expectations for the project, despite strong competition from a number of established Financial Centres already operating successfully in Europe. Also, the IFSC Steering Committee was a hard and impatient taskmaster, extremely hungry for new projects. In addition, two weeks before, I had watched Lou Dobbs on CNN Moneyline, beads of perspiration on his brow, announce a major fall on Wall Street.
Despite the fall in the market, the Government and the Steering Committee were determined to forge ahead, and to do everything possible make IFSC successful. At the time, the Irish economy was subdued, unemployment was very high, and many young people who wanted a career in finance, including unemployed bankers, lawyers and accountants, had no option but to emigrate. There was thus a great social and economic imperative for the new IFSC project to succeed.
At that time, IDA had little experience in financial services, but did have very strong international marketing expertise and an effective network of overseas offices. It had persuaded an experienced financial executive, Brendan Russell, with a real flair for marketing, to guide the team. Also, the Government had appointed a high level representative group of former leaders of state institutions, consisting of Dr.Tomas O Cofaigh (Governor-Central Bank), Seamus Pairceir (Chairman-Revenue Commissioners) and the late Maurice Horgan (Secretary-Department of Finance) to lend their considerable knowledge, international contacts and gravitas to the marketing process. This group proved to be an invaluable asset. Among other things, they were able to secure the interest of Karl Otto Poehl, Chairman of the Bundesbank, in the IFSC, which assisted greatly in securing the participation of many leading German financial institutions.
It was also clear that the major Irish financial institutions and professional firms had decided to put their weight behind marketing the project, either because they believed in it, or could not resist the moral pressure to stem the flow of financial emigrants. The marketing programme was strongly supported by the Taoiseach, Tanaiste and Minister for Finance, who offered to help in presenting the IFSC to Chairmen and CEO’s abroad. The Minister for Foreign Affairs also supported the programme, and Irish Embassies played an important role in IDA’s international IFSC marketing programmes.
The system described above worked well. Many leading financial institutions in international banking, collective funds management, corporate treasury and international insurance were visited and invited to consider locating at IFSC. The home country supervision concept, which conferred a regulatory passport for qualifying IFSC institutions to operate throughout Europe, proved to be of great interest to non EU companies, including those based in the US and Channel Islands. The system was very responsive to feedback from the marketplace. In some cases, prospective participants pointed out desired modifications to the legislative framework governing the IFSC. These were put before the Steering Committee, and if it was agreed that they had merit, were urgently implemented.
There is no reason that the IFSC should not continue to be successful if the will to make it the location of choice for the worlds leading financial institutions remains as strong in the future as a it was when it was being launched.
For the second part of this story, click here. |
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