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The 2008 Global Financial Services Centres Conference
Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th June 2008, Dublin (The Royal Hospital Kilmainham)

What the conference was about:

The conference provided a comprehensive assessment of the state of play with regard to the complex interaction of the factors governing the successful delivery of cross-border financial services from different jurisdictions.

It was structured to accommodate the different types of financial services centres there are, and the different roles they play. It assessed the dramatic changes arising from the global credit crisis, and looked at the implications of shifting regional and asset valuation trends.

It identified which centres are rising, and which are falling behind, and most importantly, what those that are falling behind need to do to recover, and what aspiring centres need to do to succeed better.

The Global Financial Services Centres Conference 2009

To discuss marketing and sponsorship opportunities, or the agenda of the 2009 Conference, (May 19th & 20th, 2009) now in development, please email or phone Dustin O'Neill, don@financedublin.com or Martina Bermingham, mb@financedublin.com, at tel: 353-1-293-0566.

CONFERENCE BROCHURE from the 2008 event - To download CLICK HERE.

Key features:

Global perspective, presenting delegates with a global assessment of the competing offerings of different jurisdictions and regions. It encapsulated regional assessments in a 'one planet' perspective.
A focus on world centres of excellence i.e. specialist sectors of specialist financial centres - for example, the hedge fund management sector in London, the captive insurance sector in Bermuda, reinsurance, aviation finance and hedge fund administration in Dublin.
Global expert speakers, in a forum for global expertise, from around the world, on topics such as offshore tax havens and regulatory compliance

Speakers included:

Charlie McCreevy, Commissioner for the Internal Market, European Commission EU. Commissioner McCreevy, who has espoused the agenda of promoting the EU's regulation as a positive contributor to the EU economyspoke
Paul S. Atkins, Commissioner, Securities and Exchange Commission, USA spoke on how SEC regulation can proceed while ensuring that global financial centres, such as no 2 ranked New York, no 8th ranked Chicago, 11th ranked Boston, 12th ranked San Francisco, and 20th ranked Washington can prosper and retain financial services employment, while encouraging an open trans Atlantic financial services regulatory and trading dialogue.
Professor Michael Mainelli, Director, The Z/Yen Group, author and developer of the GFCI Index of world financial centres, whose third index, published in March 2008, identified London and New York as the leaders in a list of over 50 ranked centres around the world.
Professor Jeffrey Owens, Head of Taxation Policy and Administration, OECD, Paris. Ranked by Time Magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people, on account of his work and influence through the OECD in reining in offshore tax havens into the globally compliant tax community.
Sandra Boss, Lead Partner on the McKinsey Report - "Sustaining New York's and the US' Global Financial Services Leadership" ("The Bloomberg-Schumer Report") commissioned on the initiative of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Senator Charles E Schumer
Karel Lannoo, Chief Executive Officer, Centre for European Policy Studies
Likhit Wagle, Partner and the Banking Industry Leader in North East Europe, IBM Global Business Services
Anthony Belchambers, Chief Executive, Futures and Options Association (FOA), and convenor of the US-EU Coalition on Financial Regulation
Martin Jack, Managing Director, Northern Trust Global Advisors
Michael Gaffney, Global co-head of taxation, Merrill Lynch
Barry O'Leary, CEO, IDA Ireland
Leslie Morrison, CEO, Invest Northern Ireland
Patrick Neary, Chief Executive, Financial Regulator, Ireland
Patrick L Young, Author of 'Capital Market Revolution and New Capital Market Revolution'
Cormac Murphy, Partner, Financial Services Risk Management, Ernst & Young
Pat Wall, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and leader of PwC's global offshore funds taxation group
Mark Fitzgerald, Chief Operating Officer, Citibank Europe plc.

Key Agenda topics included:
- The GFCI world financial centres index, by its inventor
- Tax Havens, including the Leichstenstein-Germany debate
- London & New York - the battle for top position
- European and American Centres
- The Middle East Financial Centres
- Fiscal trends - corporation tax and other taxes, including the UK 'non doms' issue
- The impact of the global credit crisis
- Regulatory creep and wrongly focused regulation and its impact on different centres
- Reporting; IFRS and other accounting issues
- Skills, Remuneration and Costs
- The impact of the global credit crisis
- Hedge Fund administration
- Insurance
- Aviation Finance
- The financial services industry in Ireland, European centres, and offshore and rising centres such as the Middle East.

TOPICS AGENDA

Day One: Global financial centres: who's winning and why This day focused on global financial centres, and examined the topics listed below.

Day Two: How Centres can leverage the new forces in global finance

2008 CONFERENCE BROCHURE - To download click here.

The outline programme of the 2008 conference was: DAY ONE

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. The Index shows overall that London remains in first place, but that it 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 was 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.
- London & New York - the battle for top position
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. The impact of the global credit crisis, and the economic conjuncture and what it means for different centres.
- Servicing of ABS
- 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

DAY TWO

How centres can leverage the new forces in global finance

1. Global Funds Industry - 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 - New developments in US treatment of pension assets & implications for pensions pooling in Europe
3. Life Assurance
4. Aviation finance
5. Insurance
6. Credit Crisis - the prospects, and lessons from an unprecedented experience.
7 Developing a Positive Regulatory framework (Patrick Neary, Chief Executive, Financial Regulator, Ireland).
8 Case study: IFSC Ireland
How Ireland is consolidating the progress it has made over the past 22 years.

Gold Sponsors
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Northern Trust

Invest Northern Ireland

IDA Ireland

PricewaterCoopers

Titanic Quarter

Silver Sponsors
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BNY Mellon Asset Servicing

Better Regulation Ltd

Event Sponsors
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Ernst & Young

IDA Ireland

HSBC

Media Partners
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Eurekahedge


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