Central Bank to beef up supervisory staff to deal with Brexit ‘pipeline’

The Central Bank, which employs more than 1,600 people, plans to beef up its banking supervision arm to cope with an expected increase in activity as a result of Brexit, according to the minutes of a meeting of the bank's commission at the end of June.

“Although there remained a high level of ambiguity regarding the final level of Brexit bank applications, there was sufficient clarity and a pipeline of applications that warranted the necessity to proceed to resource in order to address to meet the increased demand,” the minutes of the meeting on June 23rd, which were published on Tuesday, said.

The commission approved the creation of 26 new positions for the bank’s credit institutions directorate, which currenlty has the equivalent of about 200 full-time staff, and 10 additional roles in its banking resolution unit, which has about 20 employees.

Brexit

Separately, a Central Bank update on regulatory approvals during the course of the first half of the year showed that the regulator did not receive any fresh applications for authorisation from a bank during the period, though it did authorise three insurance entities.

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Most of the announcements in recent months of firms expanding in Dublin as a result of Brexit – from Citigroup to JP Morgan – would not require fresh authorisation in Ireland.

However, Bank of America Merrill Lynch told The Irish Times last month that it planned to apply for a broker-dealer licence in Dublin. This is in addition to its current banking operations, which it also intends to expand as it moves activities from London as the UK exits the European Union.

Sources said applications for approval are usually submitted at the end of a period of engagement with regulators.

Reinsurance

Meanwhile, three applications for the authorisation of insurance and reinsurance undertakings were received and approved during the six months. This is known to include two Lloyds of London insurers, Beazley and Chaucer, who plan to set up European hubs in Dublin to give them continued access to the EU following Brexit.

The Central Bank also authorised a special-purpose reinsurance vehicle, called Lion II Re DAC, set up by Italian insurance giant Assicurazioni Generali to issue €200 million of catastrophe bonds, allowing the group to share the risks associated with windstorms, earthquakes and floods.

Separately, the Central Bank said it had received no applications during the reporting period for the setting up of large investment firms under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive.