Authorisation processes in Ireland

So Erin, to kick off, why are firms choosing Ireland as their EU base?

Ireland in the past few years has become a much more popular location for regulatory authorisation and there are a few clear reasons for that.

Brexit was a key driver so a lot of firms that were authorised and operating in the UK and they had quite a big client base needed an EU authorised base and Ireland was a natural choice and then you had the firms that were based in Ireland and they decided to expand significantly and Ireland was a very good location to accommodate the changes after Brexit.

And that makes sense.

Ireland is now the only English-speaking common law jurisdiction in the EU.

And if you couple that with a particularly strong cultural and business links, a stable political and economic environment, a competitive corporate tax regime, it presents a very clear proposition for firms.

And I think that's why a number of firms have decided on Ireland as their location and their base for future needs.

Absolutely.

And I think fintech has been a key driver in that regard.

We've seen strong and sustained interest from payment services firms and e-money firms using Ireland as their base, particularly for passporting across the EU.

And Mika has added an extra dimension in that regard.

It's brought forth a whole new cohort of crypto asset service providers.

And obviously we've had sustained interest from Mifid firms as well.

So there's quite a broad spectrum of regulated firms in Ireland.

And I think looking forward, CRD6 will bring a new dimension.

In particular, we'll have kind of third country banking groups looking at how they access clients in the EU.