An Irish financial services industry lobby group has warned that the country's current regulatory environment has placed a heavy burden on firms in the financial sector and has urged the government not to react hastily to a recent case of money laundering.
Summarising the industry’s current corporate governance concerns, William Slattery, Chairman of Financial Services Ireland, believes that the overall corporate and financial services regulatory regime is now more onerous than in any other jurisdiction.
"It cannot be emphasised too strongly that this has a significant negative impact on the competitiveness of Ireland," Mr Slattery was reported as saying in the Irish press.
“The flexible regulatory environment has led to huge overseas investment and this investment should not be taken for granted. We’ve had an enormous amount of regulation over the last 15 years, but no regulation in the world would have stopped the events that happened over the weekend,” he added, referring to the money laundering investigation which is believed to be connected to a recent bank raid in Northern Ireland.
He also pointed the finger at the Companies (Auditing & Accounting) Act, 2003, which he noted has placed a huge cost burden on small and medium-sized firms.
According to Slattery, small firms in the financial services sector can expect to pay between EUR50,000 and EUR200,000 in order to prepare for the act.
"This is a very significant burden and uniquely applies to Irish companies. To my knowledge, no official economic impact assessment has been, or is intended to be done, in relation to this legislation,” he argued, adding that the matter is of “such concern” to FSI that the group is planning to launch its own survey to assess the impact of the Act.
He also called upon the Company Law Review Group to examine how regulatory changes introduced in recent years have affected the industry.
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