| |
Salary growth slows to single digit annual increase
Fee income rises to over ?400 million in Annual Finance Accountancy Survey. |
Irish covered bond legislation most innovative yet
New Irish instrument promises to be key contributor to the development of the Euro bond markets. |
ERF commissions new ‘Cecchini’ report
The European Round Table of Financial Services has commissioned a new Report on the single market for financial services. |
Obstacles listed to single market
Forum to discuss the tax obstacles to the provision of pan-European pensions hears that test case may be imminent and that multinationals are stepping closer to pan-European pension provision. |
Business leaders say Nice ‘No’ vote was correct
An Ulster bank Business Monitor survey conducted amongst business leaders throughout Ireland has indicated that 55 per cent of the business community consider that the Irish electorate was correct in voting ‘No’ in the recent referendum on the Nice Treaty. |
Call for greater protection for policyholders after independent collapse
Actuaries warn that Irish policy holders do not have the protection afforded to their UK counterparts. |
Ireland could lag in e-finance report
|
Venture capital firm backs Irish prospects
European venture capital company 3i, plans to significantly grow its current Irish investment portfolio of £48 million over the next five years despite any potential slowdown in the Irish economy, according to Clive Austin, director of 3i Ireland. |
Credit transfers too expensive
An EU Commission report showed that while Irish bank charges are competitive certain elements of the systems are non-competitive and opaque. |
Drop in number of insider dealing complaints in 2000
The ‘2000 Insider Dealing Annual Report’ of the ISE reveals that four written complaints were received in relation to alleged breaches of Part V (Insider Dealing) of the Companies Act, 1990. |
Irish risk management software developer secures first round
Irish risk management software developers Prediction Dynamics has received E650,000 in first round funding from ACT Venture Capital. |
Stock lending takes off at the ISE
The popularity of stock lending has increased rapidly at the Irish Stock Exchange over the last number of months and is expected to grow substantially over the next few years. |
EDITORIAL
Cutting edge legislation |
Accounting profession faces a period of uncertainty
Peter Carroll examines why the accounting profession is about to enter a period of uncertainty due to the issue of self-regulation. |
Covered bond to breathe new life into Irish capital markets
The Irish capital market is poised to take advantage of the new covered bond legislation says Fiona Reddan. |
FINANCE Accountancy Survey 2001
Increase in fee incomes of Ireland’s top accountancy firms indicates that the market is still strong, with first Irish accountancy firm to top £100 million in fees but there is no change in the rankings as PWC remains the biggest and KPMG the most profitable. |
Rate of salary growth slows but bonuses on the rise
Bearish predictions on the industry-wide increase in salaries over the coming year suggests that the accountancy industry is not immune from economic slowdown. |
Methodology
The survey was carried out in the last part of June and early July 2001. Finance does not seek to verify the data reported by each firm. |
Staff up 6 per cent in 2001
While staff numbers in the accountancy industry were up by 6 per cent there is a noticeable fall off in the number of professional staff being recruited. |
The future for accountancy looks strong
Managing partners from leading accountancy firms in Ireland participated in an e-forum conducted by Finance to address the issues faced by the industry. The participants were Jerome Kennedy from KPMG, Donal O’Connor from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Pat Kenny from Deloitte & Touche and Roderick Ryan from Andersen. |
Navigating the maze of obstacles and making shared service centres work
Marian Corcoran examines the evolving role of the finance director, and writes on how shared services can help in providing increased cost-efficiency. |
Career change on financial service minds
A survey by KPMG’s financial recruitment arm QPeople has found that 86 per cent of people would consider a change in career direction. |
Back to basics for online insurance
Norman Carroll says the life insurance and pensions industry should use the internet to improve their core operations before they will see any real progress in selling their products online. |
Lateral thinking key to product success
Product innovation in financial services means combining hitherto separate offerings, says Simon Glancy. |
Treasury consultant
Declan McGivern, managing director, MATRIX Treasury Consultants… ‘MATRIX made a decision on commencement of the business to hire only people who had held positions in treasuries in either corporate or financial institutions. There’s no substitute for experience!’. |
Who’s who in Finance: Mike Kemp, Chief Executive, Irish Insurance Federation
|
Who’s who in Finance: Caroline Devlin, Partner, Arthur Cox
|
Who's who in Finance: Brian D Cooper, Inward Investment Director, Barclays Bank PLC
|
Taxing losses
Corporation tax should be paid only on profits. That seems a reasonable proposition. Yet our tax system is designed so that a company with net losses may still pay taxes. This needs to be reviewed. |
Tax avoidance hammered
In the Westmoreland case the House of Lords recently retreated from the doctrine that tax avoidance should always be treated as ineffective. Within a few months, however, the UK VAT Tribunal have adopted what seems like a similar doctrine in the area of Value Added Tax. If this is successful it could have implications in Ireland. |
A look at share options
The taxation of share options was the hot topic prior to Budget 2001. The Finance Act delivered a proposal (approved share option schemes) that meets no objective other than that of appearing to do something. The taxation of share options should be reviewed from scratch. |
Equity market terminology
The second in a two part series looking at some of the essential terms used in stock markets |
Joint ventures hold key to Royal & Sun Alliance’s future
Changing an insurance provider into a multi financial service provider is the aim of Royal and Sun Alliances bosses Bob Mendelsohn and Paul Donaldson. They spoke to Roisin Hogge on how they see the future of financial services and insurance companies in an increasingly globalised market. |
Avoiding a ‘downtime’ disaster
Financial services companies need to give time and energy to their data storage systems if they are to avoid major problems says Aidan Higgins. |
