Finance Dublin 10 year special edition
Eamon O'Brien, Managing Director of Novus Financial & Management Solutions Ltd., talks to Finance Dublin
Wow 10 years on and what a ten years it has been. The IFSC, launched amidst a blaze of publicity in 1987 saw the birth of a new ‘newsy’ specialist paper for the IFSC in January 1996 and what a success Finance Dublin, and the IFSC, have continued to be.
At that time I was the Chairman of DIMA (The Dublin International Insurance and Management Association) and we were working diligently within our group to foster growth in the Dublin market attending many international conference. I remember talking long and hard to Ken O’Brien about a perceived gap in the market for a quality publication for the IFSC. Finance magazine did not really address our sector and we felt somewhat left out!! As it happens Ken had already thought of the idea and had discussed it with several others who were also very enthusiastic.
In late 1996 lots of things were happening in DIMA. I had championed an initiative within DIMA, and with IDA Ireland, to have an independent review completed on the Insurance and Reinsurance sectors. After a competition for the job we selected Tillinghast to produce a report which was jointly funded by IDA Ireland and DIMA, through the offices of Brendan Logue who was very supportive of our industry. The report was presented to the Tanaiste, Mary Harney TD, in early 1997 and directly led to the appointment within IDA of the role of International Insurance Representative, a role performed in a very professional manner by David Smith and now undertaken by the excellent Fiona Dunn. This was a quantum leap within the IDA and Ireland’s efforts to market itself on the international stage and from then on the industry took on a new pace of development. David Smith spoke at many international conferences in his new found role and gave a much greater credibility to the local and international marketing efforts of the various fledgling IFSC companies. Finance Dublin was always very supportive of our efforts to develop Dublin as ‘the Bermuda of Europe’.
At the same time I had been selected by An Taoiseach to chair the IFSC Insurance Group. This Group is effectively the top forum, for both the life and non-life industries, for discussions between the public and private sectors as we all work to develop the IFSC in a well measured fashion. The Public sector are represented on this body by senior officials from the Dept. of An Taoiseach, the Financial Regulator, Department of Finance and periodically the Revenue, whereas industry are represented by representatives of the captive management industry, reinsurance and insurance industries, Life Insurance industry, big 4 accounting firms, and Financial Services Ireland.
During that time I was also involved initiatives sponsored by An Taoiseach's Dept to strategise about the development of the IFSC and worked with various strategy groups on the development of the IFSC.
