ASIA BRIEFING: THE IRISH Funds Industry Association (IFIA) has formally announced it is opening a representative office in Hong Kong to help the growing number of local managers in Asia who want to set up funds in Ireland.
The move reflects how, over the past two decades, Ireland has established itself as one of the global leaders in areas such as domiciling Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (Ucits) and regulated alternative investment funds.
Asian managers are aware of Irish funds. Recent news includes the authorisation by the Central Bank of Ireland of a Sharia Compliant Ucits Fund promoted by the Malaysian regulated CIMB, Principal Islamic Asset Management and a planned Ucits fund promoted by Value Partners Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong operation will be led by Conor O’Mara, chairman of the Irish Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Hong Kong, in a joint initiative between the chamber and the IFIA.
“The ICC looks forward to helping position Ireland as the offshore centre of choice, as China and HK internationalises its front- and back- end financial operations over the coming years,” O’Mara says. “A HK-Ireland partnership in finance should prove a win-win scenario for the most open economies in Asia and Europe respectively.”
The Irish Funds Industry supports the distribution of Irish Ucits funds to investors in more than 70 countries worldwide.
Pat Lardner, incoming chief executive of the association, said the move would be a boost for its efforts to expand in Asia and comes on the back of a host of Asian seminars during industry missions to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul and Kuala Lumpur. These were led by IFSC chairman and former taoiseach John Bruton.
The news that the IFIA is to open the new industry office in Hong Kong follows the recent launch of new representative offices in both Singapore and Tokyo, which were opened in partnership with the IDA Ireland.
“There are currently 60 promoters from the Asia Pacific region with regulated funds domiciled in Ireland,” Lardner says.
IFIA chairman Ken Owens says there is a growing understanding that distribution services are an essential component to success in today’s asset-management industry. Nearly all the globe’s international banks have a presence in Ireland and most Irish fund administrators are subsidiaries of international banks offering global support for the distribution of Irish-domiciled funds in Asia.
“They can provide a comprehensive range of quality services to asset managers looking for support and representation to meet the needs of Asian investors and distributors,” Owens says.
Most Irish administrators are already supporting distribution in Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan, and many of them have local offices employing transfer agency and client-service staff in these markets.
They are able to communicate with investors and distributors in Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese
and English and can process trades and payments locally. They also support other agencies around the region.
Another key benefit to using Ireland as a funds domicile is its robust regulation. Ireland’s new corporate governance code would offer peace of mind to managers, particularly those in Japan, as it will significantly reduce the chance of a scandal like the AIJ Investment Advisers incident occurring.
