The Inaugural Global Financial Services Centres Conference 2008

(Incorporating The Finance Dublin 9th Annual Conference)

Global Financial Centres will be the theme of the conference and speakers include EU Internal Markets Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, United States SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins, Jeffrey Owens, Head of the OECD'S Centre for Tax Policy & Administration, Professor Michael Mainelli, the inventor and developer of the Global Financial Centres Index.

Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th June 2008,

Dublin (The Royal Hospital Kilmainham)

DAY ONE: Global Financial Centres: Who's Winning & Why

DAY TWO: How Ireland Can Leverage the New Forces in Global Finance

Contact us at conferences@fintel.org to discuss your involvement in the event.

DAY ONE: Global financial centres: who's winning and why

1. Developing a Positive Regulatory & Fiscal Governance Environment for Successful Global Financial Centres. Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, the EU Commissioner and SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins.
2. London has been placed first again, followed by New York in a new index of the attractiveness of the world’s financial centres published by the City of London, The Global GFCI Index, the third of which has just been published. In the first of the series, published in July 2007, Dublin was placed in 22nd position, rising to 15th in a subsequent index published in September last, and to 13th now. The Index shows overall that London remains in first place, but that is has suffered a decline since the previous index, due to the perceived fumbling by the UK Government in handling the Northern Rock crisis, and also Government attempts to increase the tax take from ‘non doms’ - non domiciled residents in the UK. Trends in the index and its genesis is explained by Professor Michael Mainelli, founder of Z/Yen, and developer of the Z/Yen/GFCI Index.
3. European and USA Centres. Why Canada is rising and US centres are static. Why most European centres are slipping, and the offshore centres are undergoing a revival. Mayor Bloomberg's New York initiative.
4. The Middle East & Asian Financial Centres
5. “Offshore” centres
6. Tax Havens. The Leichstenstein-Germany debate. Offshore/Onshore. Money laundering.
7. Fiscal trends – Corporation tax and other taxes (e.g. the UK “non doms” issue) impacting on global financial services
8. Regulatory creep and wrongly focused regulation. Companies are reacting against regulatory creep (Sarbox, MIFID, and other financial Directives, e.g. the Reinsurance Directive), and this is impacting on the relative attractiveness of different financial centres.
9. Reporting. IFRS and other accounting issues. The SEC will only agree to reconciliation if there is only one form of IFRs. But national variants have been mooted, and some (e.g. the London Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation) have asked would this be a bad thing.
10. Skills, Remuneration and Costs. Global trends, and the impact of market developments, e.g. The impact of the credit crisis on bonus structures going forward. The importance of education and skills in different centres.
11. The impact of the global credit crisis, and the economic conjunctuire and what it means for different centres.
    - Impact on hedge funds (and hedge fund servicing)
    - New models for securitisation, and new fixes
    - The impact of the liquidity squeeze on the major financial centres
    - Oil and Commodities
    - Recession in the US
    - Servicing of ABS
    

DAY TWO 17th June: How Ireland can leverage the new forces in global finance

The first half of the day will focus on sectors in which Ireland is a global sectoral leader, for example hedge fund administration, and aviation finance, and the second half on fiscal and regulatory matters specifically concerning Dublin and its competitors.

MORNING:

1. Global Funds Industry – Dublin continues to consolidate its lead in hedge funds. How the credit crisis is impacting on hedge fund and general fund valuation issues – issues, and potentials for centres to gain advantage, e.g. Jersey's new unregulated hedge funds regime.
2. Pan European Pensions Update – How Dublin's offering is developing.
3. Life Assurance
4. Insurance
5. Credit Crisis - A new Model and new products for the Irish ABS, Structured Finance and Securitisation sectors

AFTERNOON:

1. Regionalisation of Ireland's Financial Services Industry. Planning an orderly development of the spread of the IFSC through the regions
2. An 'all-island' financial services industry – the role of Northern Ireland
3. Developing a Positive Regulatory framework for the IFSC (Patrick Neary, Chief Executive, Financial Regulator).
4. IFSC Leaders Round Table: How Ireland can further consolidate the progress it has made as a financial centre over the past 22 years. The lessons – the problems – the solutions.

See details of last year's conference:

Finance Dublin 8th Annual Conference - Developing North Atlantic Capital Markets