Investment Funds 2020, in Finance Dublin: Ireland in 2019 has emerged as the leading European domicile for UCITS and AIFs in 2019, as data for the first three quarters of the year show the jurisdiction with an unprecedented 57 per cent share of net sales compared with the next location, Luxembourg, with a 19.7 p.c. share. The figures are contained in Finance Dublin's annual funds industry Special Report, Investment Funds 2020.

Markets entered 2020 in a more confident state than they were just twelve months earlier, and for a good reason. To stay on top of this favourable wave, there will be challenges. But, as we say in our new year's editorial, we believe the effort will be worth it, as huge opportunities exist.

The establishment of Mancos, the development of new clusters and product lines, the structuring of funds in Irish vehicles, with Irish wrappers recording new record asset levels, such as CCFs at over €100 billion, and new agendas in areas such as ESG, and new legislative and regulatory initiatives, are among the key pillars of development examined in 'Investment Funds 2020' Special Report (right).

7th January 2020: CDB Aviation, a wholly owned Irish subsidiary of China Development Bank Financial Leasing Co., Limited ('CDB Leasing'), announced today that aviation industry veteran Patrick Hannigan has been named the company's new Chief Executive Officer, taking the helm at a pivotal time in the lessor's robust development, with the goal of furthering its growth momentum.

With the introduction of the Multi-Lateral Instrument, and the principal purpose test in particular, and with more and more countries moving to a relief at source system, it will become particularly important in the future for Irish funds to ensure they are satisfied that they are entitled to claim treaty benefits in the respective jurisdiction before claiming relief at source in respect of withholding tax on income received from their foreign investments, writes Deloitte's SYBIL SMYTH.

Tinseltown and the party season may be in full swing, but it's a good time to take a moment of reflection and look at ways we can improve the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves. Worth considering might be basis.point, the charity initiative of the Irish funds Industry, which is a unique example of industry colleagues coming together and putting their time, energy and resources together to combat one single issue, educational disadvantage. Six years ago, the charity was established by a small group of visionaries within the Irish funds sector, who saw the potential of coordinating their own personal giving in a structured fashion in order to amplify their impact. They identified education as a transformative component in offering a child a better future and the concept of #joinedupgiving was born.

Our recent conferences held in October provided much insight and food for thought, some of which is reflected in this issue, and some of which will inform the agenda in coming issues of Finance Dublin. One thing is clear, though. Brexit as a process will last for a very long time, the headlined dates in popular dialogue relate only to the commencement of a regulatory disengagement process that is set to last many years into the future.

The 2019 Edition of the annual Finance Dublin Accountancy survey of the top 20 Irish firms shows that total income of the Top 20 firms has surpassed €2 billion for the first time. This is double the total of just over €1 billion in 2010. In just nine years since the Global Financial Crisis the Irish industry has grown by as much as it has in the previous 131 years, since professional accounting in Ireland started in 1888, the foundation date of the oldest professional institute in Ireland.

Finance Dublin's conference #FCSDublin 2019 in Dublin Castle on October 16th featured amongst its speakers Ken Clarke, MP, Father of the House of Commons, and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chairman of the United States Securities & Exchange Commission, the USA's most senior regulatory official for the stock markets and for other exchanges and markets. Agenda details.

FCSDublin, 2019 in Dublin Castle on October 16th featured amongst its keynote speakers the Chairman of the Securities & Exchange Commission of the United States.

15th October 2019: The Aviation Finance conference in Dublin Castle, AFCDublin, 2019, kicked off with an address by the president of ISTAT followed by a star studded day of On-Stage Interviews and trading panels. The Conference was opened by Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Michael D'Arcy, TD. At the heart of the conference was aircraft asset trading, to quote AFC2019's opening keynote speaker, ISTAT president Gerry Butler, CMO of Merx Aviation, aircraft trading is 'still only in its infancy'. It featured interviews with Aercap CEO Aengus Kelly and CDB Aviation's Patrick Hannigan, both conducted by Aviation Finance's contributing editor Joe Gill. Following an address by Virginia Fox, Head of Risk of GECAS, on the ever-important matter of risk management, AFC2019 featured a CFO Forum, featuring a panel of top aircraft lessor CFOs on the ' finance function of the future', chaired by EY's Danny Buckley. See Photo Gallery here.

The Latest issue contains details of the landmark and exciting agenda with over 50 speakers at Finance Dublin's forthcoming Summit on October 16th, preceded by our Aviation Finance conference, AFCDublin, 2019, on October 15th with all of the leading players in Ireland's aircraft leasing industry featuring. Brexit may be a topic on everyone's lips still, but it will eventually pass in significance, and we will be left with the concrete realities of a new financial markets landscape. In FCSDublin 2019 speakers have been briefed to address the concrete opportunities that exist across the platform rather than dwell on the uncertainties that may exist, such as those surrounding Brexit. It will be in concrete action that continued success will be achieved.

Thirty four deals are recognised across six categories in the Deals of the Year, 2019, out of over 210 nominations. The deals are across the spectrum of Ireland's capital markets and its international financing and structuring industry; Finance Dublin's annual conference, FCS Dublin, in October will include as keynote speakers, the Chairman of the Securities & Exchange Commission, USA, Jay Clayton, and Kenneth Clarke, QC, former Chancellor of the Exchequer; Irish finance's response to the Green surge: BPFI sets out an agenda; The Government's 'Ireland for Finance' strategy: the pillars; The Irish Tax Monitor: Corporation tax considerations, the US Tax and Jobs Act and its impact on Ireland, and Brexit tax planning, and much more.

The President of the Institute of Banking, Clive Bellows, Head of Global Fund Services EMEA Northern Trust, Dublin describes a game-changing skill advantage on the way that 'will distinguish the Irish funds industry amongst its global peers'.

'We find asset reallocation combined with reinsurance to be the most effective means to manage an insurer's return/risk profile following a more holistic enterprise-based framework', says New England Asset Management's Jim Bachman. New England Asset Management (NEAM) was established 1984 based on the recognition of a need for specialised asset management services tailored to the insurance industry. It was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway in 1998 and, in Europe, has established NEAM Limited in Ireland with a branch office in the UK.