The Financial Centres Summit, Dublin 2017 presented by Finance Dublin and FSI in Dublin Castle heard from over 80 speakers on the current vital issues for Ireland's IFS industry on Tuesday October 17th. See the latest on the event and what's happening as a result on Twitter here at: #FCSDublin2017 Proceedings started with the keynote address by Lord Jonathan Hill, former EU Commissioner for financial services.

October 4th: Fidelity International has adopted an aggressive new pricing strategy in a major overhaul of its fee charges. The company is to adopt and hedge fund-style feee structurte, linking fees to fund performance, and largely abandon its current flat fee structure - the move comes as active managers are coming under pressure from the growth of assets invested in low-cost passive funds and strategies. The investment manager also announced plans to add 250 jobs to its Irish operations as part of its long-term plans.

September 19th: XL Group, which has been operating in Ireland since 1990, has decided to move its European headquarters to Dublin from London in response to Brexit, joining several other insurers including Chaucer and Royal London in choosing Dublin. The Bermuda-headquartered insurer announced the move following a meeting between CEO Michael McGavick and the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Dublin. Regina O'Connor, Head of Government Affairs and Reg. Policy at XLGroup Ltd to speak at FCS2017 on XL's choice of Ireland as post Brexit hub.

The European Banking Authority takes a cautious and carefully balanced view in its deliberations on how it should approach FinTech in its latest Discussion Paper.

When the General Data Protection Regulation (EU 2016/679) comes into force on 25 May next the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner will be able to impose for the first time large administrative fines for data protection breaches. Muireann Reedy explains why it will pay to be compliant with the GDPR.

September 15th: Moody's upgrade of Ireland's rating to A2, also changes outlook to 'stable from positive'. It cites Brexit as the main downside, but says "Ireland's financial sector stands to benefit from Brexit, with a number of large financial firms announcing relocation plans of some operations to Ireland in the past several months".

New rules being introduced by the Central Bank of Ireland in just under a year for Irish authorised fund management companies (CP86) clearly outline its expectations and arrangements around the core tenets of governance, compliance and supervision.

Cedric Edmonds, director of Solidum Re, whose idea it was to use a blockchain and who was key in the design and the implementation of the ILSBlockchain and surrounding structural mechanics, says an alternative to Euroclear was required as it was becoming increasingly difficult to access Euroclear efficiently for smaller private placement note issues.

Leslie Kurshan, Leader of Innovative Client Solutions at insurance broker Marsh and Vicky Hartley, Boeing Capital Corporation's Senior Director of Customer Finance for Europe, will address the Financial Centres Summit, Dublin October 2017 on the Aircraft Finance Insurance Consortium Aircraft Non-Payment Insurance (ANPI) product introduced earlier this year.

Barclays has confirmed that Ireland will be the location for its post-Brexit EU banking plans having indicated that Dublin would be its chosen location, in the event of a so-called 'hard Brexit' as far back as January. Having recently installed a new CEO at its Irish bank, it described Dublin as a 'natural base' for its EU hub. Barclays Ireland's new chief Kevin Wall will be a speaker at the Financial Centres Summit on October 17th.

The survey, amongst the 500 Companies included in the 2017 Finance Dublin Yearbook, carried out in collaboration with Deloitte also finds that overall employment increased amongst the companies surveyed last year by 4.6 per cent and that Regulation and Supervision issues are the most important concerns.

The annual Yearbook, now in its 24th edition profiles 579 institutions overall, including 500 companies in the Irish IFS industry; It profiles 38 Market Infrastructures, Industry Representative bodies and public sector agencies, including IDA Ireland and the Departments of Finance and the Taoiseach, the Irish Stock Exchange and the Central Bank of Ireland as well as 41 professional services firms servicing IFS in Ireland.

12th July 2017: Beazley plc is to establish its European insurance company in Dublin, growing its Irish presence which it had reduced in recent years. Beazley CEO Andrew Horton said 'we have long considered it [Dublin] an attractive potential location from which to develop our European business.' The move reverses the decision by Beazley to scale down its Dublin presence after it moved its head office from Dublin back to London in 2016.

To mark 30 Years of the IFSC, HSBC Securities Services' Paul Heffernan has traced HSBC's historic Irish connections going back to the late 1880s in Hong Kong, in this article in the 2017 Finance Dublin Yearbook