There are a number of encouraging developments in Ireland that would, on the surface, appear to place it on a strong footing to further enhance its reputation as Europe's leading onshore alternative funds jurisdiction.  If one looks at fund growth, through October 2016 (the most recent figures at the time of writing) the aggregate AUM of Irish QIAIFs increased by 7 per cent with net sales reaching EUR10 billion. At the end of 2015, total assets in Irish ICAV fund structures stood at EUR6.2 billion. By the end of October 2016, that figure had risen to EUR26.5 billion.  "The ICAV

ML Capital, one of Ireland's leading management company groups, has grown to exceed EUR3 billion of AUM over the last 12 months. The growth trajectory over recent years has enabled ML Capital to evolve from being a leading UCITS platform operator to being more of a fund solutions provider to managers and investors alike.  "They come to us, tell us what they need and we give them the best fund structure and solution; whether this is going on to one of our platforms and launching a sub-fund and using us as the third party ManCo to perform all the operational

The Irish Government is keen to embrace the FinTech revolution as is evidenced by its IFS2020 strategy for International Financial Services, which aims to create 10,000 new jobs in the IFS sector by 2020.  One particular area of innovation underway in Ireland is the emergence of regulatory technology or ‘RegTech’ with a plethora of start-ups now operating out of Dublin. Part of the reason for this is that sell-side institutions and fund management groups, burdened by the weight of regulation, regard outsourcing as an attractive option because regulatory operations are effectively a non-competitive differentiator. This thriving technology ecosystem is benefiting

Alternative fund managers have had a myriad of regulatory change to contend with over recent years. In the early stages, many chose to take on the reporting burden themselves. This was very much a learning curve.  However, as the complexity of regulatory compliance has increased, fund managers have looked to consider how much they want to handle internally versus how much they want to outsource.  "We now see a significant amount of fund managers choosing to outsource their regulatory requirements," says Linda Gorman (pictured), CEO of Quintillion Limited, a European-based affiliate of US Bancorp Fund Services. "Essentially everyone has come

Dublin's International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) employs over 38,000 people and is home to some of the world's leading financial institutions; industry stalwarts such as Merrill Lynch, ABN Amro, JP Morgan.  But in recent years, this area of Dublin has ushered in a slew of technology companies, many of them exciting start-ups specialising in financial technology. Alongside the likes of Google, Twitter, LinkedIn and Airbnb, all of whom have their European headquarters located here, a number of interesting start-ups have sprouted up, causing some to dub this area `Silicon Docks'.  Firms such as Propertygate and Certus (portfolio management), CR2, Acquirer