THE STATE’S financial services industry has scored a major coup by attracting a group of international investment banks to establish a new range of investment funds of up to €90 billion here.
Source UK, a joint venture between Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, has launched 13 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and 22 exchange-traded commodity (ETC) products, all of which are domiciled in Ireland.
According to Barry McGrath, partner with law firm Maples and Calder, which acted as legal adviser on the product launch, Source UK considered multiple jurisdictions such as Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands and Britain, but selected Ireland as the best location in which to base its product platform.
It is understood that Source UK was attracted by Ireland’s financial services infrastructure and its funds regulatory regime.
“Ireland is clearly winning the battle against Luxembourg to be the domicile of choice for these products,” Mr McGrath said.
Bank of Ireland Securities Services (BOISS) is the administrator and custodian of the funds.
Fearghal Woods of BOISS said that the launch of these investment funds has already created jobs within the bank. He said Source UK has “very, very significant distribution plans”, and if successful “a lot” more jobs could potentially be created here.
The launch represents the first product offering from Source UK.
