On 26 September, Cork FS Forum hosted an industry briefing on 'Cork as an IFS location and the changing asset management landscape in Ireland'.  Michael Hodson, Director of Asset Management Supervision Directorate at Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) gave an overview of Financial Regulation today including MiFID II which seeks to strengthen investor protection as well as improving the regulation of the market and firms. At present, the CBI supervises 371 firms across the MiFID investment services and fund services space, and these firms have approximately €433 billion assets under management and over 140,000 clients.  Michael touched on the topic of Brexit, which is a key priority for the Central Bank, noting that they have had a significant amount of engagement with firms regarding potential relocation decisions and the resulting authorisation process. It is interesting to note, that these firms expect and want "high quality and challenging supervision that is in line with the highest regulatory standards".  The full text of his address can be found online here. 

Patrice McDonald, non-exec Chair/Director of a number of IFS & Tech companies and also Former CRO of Barclays Wealth, followed the CBI presentation by giving an industry perspective, noting some of the significant challenges of the banking crash in 2008. Strong emphasis was placed on the lessons learnt with respect to the importance of corporate culture and governance, including diversity on boards, as a means of risk-proofing the decision-making process.