Minister D’Arcy launches “Ireland for Finance” - A new strategy for the international financial services sector- in the US

The Minister of State for Financial Services and Insurance, Michael D’Arcy TD, today launched “Ireland for Finance” in the US this morning at an event at the Irish Consulate in New York attended by representatives from the banking, financial services and legal industries in the city. Ireland for Finance is the new strategy for the further development of the international financial services (IFS) sector in Ireland to 2025, which was launched in Ireland earlier this year. Minister D’Arcy was introduced at the launch by Deirdre O’Connor, Managing Director at global investment management firm Blackrock, who is the international adviser on the Industry Advisory Committee which advised on the development of the Strategy and will also now assist with its implementation.

The vision of the Strategy is for Ireland to be a top-tier global location of choice for specialist international financial services. "Ireland for Finance" builds upon the success of "IFS2020", the previous IFS five-year strategy for the development of the international financial services sector launched in 2015. The employment target for the new Strategy is to reach 50,000 people in direct employment in the sector by 2025. This compares with 44,000 people directly employed in the sector at the end of 2018. In formulating the Strategy, the Government has taken account of current and future developments while also exploring potential challenges and opportunities, especially the potential impact of technology, both positive and negative.

Commenting at the US launch of the strategy Minister D’Arcy said:

The Strategy is structured around the following four pillars:

1. The operating environment pillar is focused on ensuring the policy, culture and legislative conditions underpinning IFS will support growth;

2. The technology and innovation pillar is focused on providing a collaborative approach to addressing emerging challenges and opportunities in technological developments;

3. The talent pillar seeks to ensure that we continue to have skilled people to meet the demands of the IFS sector, including meeting new and changing skills ; and

4. The communications and promotion pillar is focused on ensuring that Ireland’s IFS offering is communicated to all those who are or may be attracted to investing in Ireland.

Three horizontal priorities will apply across the four pillars - regionalisation, sustainable finance and diversity. The Strategy retains the “whole-of-Government” approach that underpinned the success of previous Government strategies for the international financial services sector. This will be supported through ongoing collaboration between public and private stakeholders and educational institutions to ensure the talent and expertise of all three sectors can continue to be successfully harnessed to build on existing achievements and secure the ambitions set out in the new Strategy.

The Strategy will be updated each year by means of annual Action Plans. This approach ensures that the Strategy remains relevant and up-to-date in identifying and addressing emerging challenges. Each annual Action Plan will contain a list of measures grouped under each of the four pillars to be actioned in that year with a responsible stakeholder tasked with leading on the execution of each measure.

Note for editors

1. The “Ireland for Finance” Strategy is a successor to the IFS2020 Strategy that was launched in March of 2015.

2. Link to strategy is here.

3. *The three horizontal priorities are as follows:

Regionalisation (establishing a presence outside Dublin) can result in reduced costs for IFS companies and better staff retention. It can also enable businesses to draw on regional labour pools and well-renowned third level institutions.

Sustainable finance is the capital required to tackle climate change. Sustainable finance includes green bonds, environmental, and socially responsible investments and sustainable infrastructure investments. Sustainable Finance is already an important and growing sector in Ireland and it has the potential for further growth in both size and importance. Across Ireland there are world leaders in sustainable finance investments and increasingly in asset management companies, insurance companies and pension funds.

Workforce diversity can increase the number of perspectives within an organisation and can provide a better understanding of customer needs.

Action measures to support these priorities will be grouped under the various pillars during the life of the strategy.

4. Headline actions for 2019

There are over 50 action measures in the Ireland for Finance Action Plan 2019. A number of the 7 headline measures are outlined below:

Pillar 1 - Operating environment

• Consider Central Bank stakeholder engagement group (measure #2): models and best practice will be researched and considered.

Pilar 2 - Technology and Innovation

• Establish Fintech Foresight group (measure #4): to drive the further development of fintech under the strategy. This Group is expected to explore matters such as:

o A virtual digital bridge from the “Silicon Docks in Dublin to IFS companies in Dublin and in other regions”;

o A link with the Grand Canal Innovation District; and

Pillar 3 - Talent

• Develop a ‘Women in Finance’ Charter (measure #5) and IFS companies will be invited to sign it every year.

Pillar 4 - Communications and Promotion

• Focus on regional locations (measure #7) and their advantages