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Fee income soars by 21.5 per cent in industry
Fee income amongst Ireland’s top accountancy firms has soared by 21.5 per cent to €782 million according to the 2005 Annual FINANCE Accountancy Survey of the industry, which shows that Deloitte is the most efficient accountancy firm in Ireland, Horwath Bastow Charleton is the fastest growing, and over 1,000 people will be recruited into the industry in the coming year, an increase of 7 per cent on 2004. |
IBI tops 2005 deal league table
IBI leads by volume of deals, but Goodbody leads on deal value, according to the latest statistics on the industry. |
Moves on Directors’ Compliance
The Company Law Review Group’s (CLRG) review of the controversial Directors’ Compliance Statement (DCS) has been completed, and CLRG has now made its recommendations, which are expected to include significant revisions to the DCS, to Government. |
Editorial
Accountancy compares well
Ireland’s accountancy sector is in extremely good health, as our annual survey on pages 4,5 and 6 of this issue shows.
Legal firms
Ireland’s top law firms are no slouches either when it comes to generating fee income, with a recent survey by British publication ‘The Lawyer’ describing Ireland as ‘one of the most vibrant and wealthy legal markets in the world’, where the profits of the leading Irish firms are ‘notably better’ than mid-size London firms. |
Record numbers polled in FINANCE Stockbroking Survey 2005
Voting for the 2005 Survey has commenced, with a record number of fund managers being polled for this year's survey, in this, the nineteenth year of the survey. |
AIB moves out of gilts status
AIB Capital Markets’ Primary Dealer Unit (PDU) is to stop acting as a primary dealer in Government bonds as of the end of this year. AIB made the decision due to the lack of activity in the Irish Government bond over the past few years. |
Treasurers look for clearer MiFID distinction
Non-financial institutions’ trading activites should not be inhibited under MiFID says ACT |
IAS 39 changes hedging strategies
Corporate treasurers are turning to vanilla products. |
PPP tenders announced for Criminal Court
Three candidates have been shortlisted for the Courts Service PPP project. |
News Briefs
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Fee income at top accountancy firms is up by 21.5 per cent, and recruitment is set to grow by 7 per cent
The Irish accountancy sector continues to boom, fuelled by a buoyant economy, and increasing regulation. Fee income amongst the top twenty-two firms responding to this year's FINANCE Annual Accountancy Survey now totals €782 million, up 21.5 per cent, with fee income amongst the 'Big 4' up 18.4 per cent on last year. |
Staffing is biggest issue for industry going forward
Difficulties in attracting the right staff is proving to be problematic for Ireland’s accountancy industry, at a time when ‘over-regulation’ is proving to be both an opportunity and an obstacle, say the managing partners of Ireland’s leading accountancy firms. |
IAS 39 – the story so far
IAS 39, the accounting standard which deals with financial instruments such as derivatives was introduced in January of this year. Ten months on, Ciaran Kane looks at the impact of the standard on corporate treasurers’ use of derivatives since its introduction, and finds that, overall, there has been a tendency by companies adopting IAS 39 to use more vanilla products such as forwards and purchased options. |
CEBS - is total convergence really achievable?
As the implementation of the Capital Requirements Directive approaches, Debra McCarthy asks, is the convergence of supervisory practise and transposition of Community Directives sought by CEBS really possible? |
Capital Home Loans goes on the road to sell first UK securitisation backed by Limited Company loans
In September Capital Home Loans, a subsidiary of Irish Life & Permanent since 1996 which specialises in providing Buy to Let loans and home loans to predominantly self-employed people, launched its latest securitisation issue under its Auburn Securities programme, the ?450 million, Auburn 5. This was an unusual deal as not only was it 100 per cent Buy to Let; the transaction was comprised entirely of Limited Company loans, a first in the UK, writes Bob Young, and the transaction was 2.4 times oversubscribed. |
SEPA – transforming the payments business in Europe
SEPA is a major project currently being undertaken on a voluntary basis by the European banking industry, to integrate and harmonise payment systems in the Eurozone in particular, and Europe generally. By 2010 SEPA is expected to be the dominant payment mechanism for both cross-border payments, and payments within Ireland. Tom Conlon describes the challenges ahead. |
Minimising foreign taxes
Ireland is a low tax economy that earns its living largely by trading with other countries. Such foreign trade activities can expose an Irish business to high foreign tax. Failure to adopt structures to deal with this can result in damage to reputation in foreign markets and costly foreign tax bills. |
VAT and Factoring
A European Court of Justice (ECJ) judgement has improved the VAT position of companies who factor debts. In most cases this should reduce the cost to them of factoring transactions. Some taxpayers may have a right to recover VAT for past periods. |
When was the last time you did a Customs Duty review?
Paying import duties (customs, excise and VAT) is traditionally something that companies just get on with. While VAT is usually closely monitored (and exemptions, reclaims and other mechanisms are put in place), reclaimable. Customs and Excise costs are usually often treated as a fixed cost and where possible passed onto the consumer to be, at best, factored into a sales price, end of story. However maybe it is time that Finance Directors took time out to examine Customs duty and do a full scale review. |
What is finite reinsurance?
Finite reinsurance, also known as ‘financial reinsurance’ or ‘non-traditional insurance products’, has come under increasing scrutiny from various regulators in recent months. Raj Parker and Nathan Wilmott explain what finite reinsurance is, when it is used and why a number of regulators are currently investigating the use of these products. |
MAD Directive will herald significant changes in financial services industry
The Market Abuse Directive will take an important step towards ensuring stable, transparent, integrated and efficient European markets, and while it was implemented in Ireland in July, a number of important practical provisions were just introduced on October 1st. Joe Beashel attempts to relieve some of the ‘legislative fatigue’ facing the industry caused by this and a number of other EU Directives currently being transposed by the financial services industry, by giving a broad introduction and overview of this important new piece of legislation. |
Career in corporate finance is suitable for professionals with varying backgrounds
Although most investment bankers train as chartered accountants, the industry attracts people from all backgrounds including engineering and the arts. Leo Casey writes that what’s important to succeed in the sector are strong analytical and inter-personal skills. |
Financial services industry needs to focus on talent management
A combination of impending baby boomer retirements, a widening skills gap and outdated approaches to talent management is threatening the long-term business performance of organisations, writes Cormac Hughes. As such, managing talent retention and recruitment should now be a major priority for management and no longer seen as the sole purview of the HR department, he says. |
‘The life of Brian’
Brian Kelleher, senior relationship manager, AIB Global Treasury Services, describes a typical day in a business environment where markets move very quickly and one where ‘winning the deal’ gives as good a buzz now as it did 15 years ago. |
Who’s who in Finance: Brian Murphy, Director of Treasury, Anglo Irish Bank Corporation plc
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Who’s who in Finance: Raffaele Bertoni, Head of Fixed Income, Pioneer Investments Ltd
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Dublin is 8th most expensive for office rents globally
London tops the most expensive list, but Dublin is still in the top ten globally, with average class A net rent €376 per m2. |
