By Business & Finance 
Michael D’Arcy TD, Minister of State for Financial Services and Insurance at 21st Annual Global Funds Conference
Irish Funds reported an increase in assets in Irish domiciled funds of 9% over the last quarter, to an all-time high of €2.64 trillion according to the latest data from the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI).
Net sales for the quarter across all funds, stood at €32.3 billion – of which €25.7bn were into ETFs. This, along with positive market movement helped drive an increase in assets in Irish domiciled ETFs to €429.8bn, representing 17% growth in the first quarter.
Since 2017, ETFs have made huge strides as a tool for institutional investors as well as a providing retail investors access to asset classes which were previously beyond their reach. Ireland has emerged as a leading global centre for the product attracting over 50 per cent of all European-domiciled ETFs – and the largest outside the US.
The strong performance of Irish domiciled funds, combined with €2.0 trillion of non-domiciled funds administered in Ireland, puts the total value of assets under administration in Ireland at €4.7 trillion.
Ireland’s attractiveness as a funds centre
These figures underscore Ireland’s continuing attractiveness as a funds centre – with the Central Bank of Ireland completing its highest-ever number of fund authorisations — 1,117 — in 2018. This includes a growing presence of asset managers and management companies in Ireland, with a 29% increase in ManCo registrations from the beginning of 2018 to date and seven new entries so far in 2019.
This reflects ongoing Brexit contingency planning, but also a more general trend as global managers choose Ireland as their EU base and launchpad to provide solutions to a range of European and global clients.
Ireland for Finance strategy
Michael D’Arcy TD, Minister of State for Financial Services and Insurance outlined the new Government ‘Ireland for Finance’ strategy and thanked the industry for its input and support, commenting:
“Ongoing successful collaboration between public and private stakeholders is essential if we are to harness the talents and expertise of both sectors. I want Ireland to be at the fore-front of policy developments at EU-level, both from a Government and an industry perspective, to ensure that we can once again secure the ‘first-mover’ advantage which characterised our early successes.”
