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Industry to protest over levy
Financial services sector up in arms over discriminatory levy |
Pan-European pension decision imminent
The European Commission’s Pension Directive has gone before the European Parliament for its second reading and faces a crucial vote, which will determine the future of the pension industry in Ireland and beyond. |
Treasurers welcome increased focus on corporate governance
The increased appetite for regulation in the wake of the Enron scandal was broadly welcomed by panellists at the second annual Finance Treasury Roundtable discussion, which was held on November 7th in The Vaults in the IFSC. |
Editorial
Levy is inexplicable |
McCreevy mark II: A new and improved model?
In the Finance Stockbroking Survey 2002 Colin Hunt was voted ‘Best Economist’. Finance invited him to examine the economic outlook for Ireland in the aftermath of Budget 2003. |
Growth in financial salaries slows down
Growth in average salaries across Ireland’s international financial services sector eased to 6.75 per cent in the year to August 2002, from 8 percent in 2001, according to Ernst & Young’s 12th annual survey on remuneration within the sector. |
Market Committee formed
Following its September merger with CRESTCo, Euroclear, the world’s largest settlement system for domestic and international securities, has announced the creation of an Irish Market Advisory Committee (MAC). |
O’Connor re-elected
PricewaterhouseCoopers have unanimously re-elected Donal O’Connor as senior partner of the Republic of Ireland firm for a four-year term from July 1st 2003. |
Lawless takes over
Judith Lawless, a partner with McCann FitzGerald has been appointed president of the Irish Association of Corporate Treasurers (IACT). |
Telekurs to open Dublin office
Telekurs Financial, a global supplier of financial information, is to open an office in Dublin on Harcourt Street. |
New IFSRA chief will have flexible approach
In an interview outlining his vision for the new regulator published in this month’s edition of Finance Dublin, Dr. Liam O’Reilly, the newly appointed chief executive of the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority (IFSRA), has said that his approach to regulating the industry will be as open and flexible as before. |
Pension funds - equity markets in turmoil
Michael Dempsey assesses pension fund performance in the year-to-date and finds that Bank of Ireland Asset Management is the best performing fund manager so far this year. |
Diversification will be crucial in 2003
A global market and a difficult geopolitical backdrop make it increasingly difficult to plan ahead but diversification across the full spectrum of investment instruments is an important way to cope with unforeseen events writes Mark Merrigan. |
Trends in IPO methods - how to get it right
The popularity of book-building for initial public offerings (IPOs) has grown in the last decade despite the greater costs involved. UCC academics Edel Barnes, Derek Beatty and Gael Hardie-Brown examine how it can be both successful and effective. |
Financing options for property investment and development
Bryan Higgins examines the broad ranges of financing options available for corporates considering site acquisition, development or the purchase of an investment property. |
Ireland’s decreasing competitiveness needs to be addressed
The cost of doing business in Ireland is on an upward curve, and with inflation currently running at an annual rate of 4.6 per cent, our rate of price increase is now four and a half times that of the UK, our main trading partner. This needs to be addressed or there will be only one possible outcome - falling output and employment writes Philip Halpin. |
People are key to managing treasury risks
Last month Declan McGivern explained the crucial role enterprise risk management (ERM) plays in treasury risk management. This month he highlights the important role treasury culture plays in controlling risks and says that employees should be rewarded for strict compliance to company controls. |
Interest rates to remain steady over next six months
Each month, the Finance Markets Panel, which consists of leading Irish market participants and analysts, provides views on key financial markets, covering currencies, equities and the gilt markets. |
Good advice
The Minister was not without much advice in framing his budget. It was unfortunate for the Minister that so much of it was conflicting and so little of it likely to increase the Government take from taxes to the degree needed by the Minister. In the event, the Budget did not respond in a clear way to most suggestions made. But it did to some. |
The inevitable question
Was it a good Budget, was it a bad Budget? It is impossible to say, because we cannot agree on what is good and what is bad about Budgets. |
Who cooked the budget?
Social partners, politicians, professional lobby groups, trade representative bodies, Civil Servants and even the Minister for Finance all have a hand in drafting a Budget. Whose thumb prints can be discovered on which measures in Mr McCreevy’s sixth Budget? |
Using Microsoft Excel to price financial options
George Levy explains how Excel can be used to evaluate an option’s value that depends on the value of one underlying asset as well as multiple underlying assets. |
Growing a funds business
As business development manager for Fortis Fund Services (Ireland) Limited, targeting potential clients is top of the agenda for Philip Craig. |
Who’s who in Finance:Ted McGovern, Chief Executive, EBS Building Society
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Boom to doom or just a soft landing?
David O’ Donnell reviews activity in the Irish corporate finance market over the past year and examines the outlook for 2003, where he forecasts merger and acquisition activity will remain steady as bidders look for real value at the bottom of the market. |