IRELAND – Irish-serviced funds grew 23% over the past year, topping $950bn (€785bn) as at 30 June 2005, according to Lipper Fitzrovia’s 11th annual Dublin Fund Encyclopedia.

“A year ago, a trillion dollar industry was in our sight,” said Dublin Funds Industry Association (DFIA) chief executive Gary Palmer. “It is now firmly in our reach.”

But the rate of increase was down slightly compared with the 30% rise seen last year in euro terms, it but substantially outperformed the 12% mark in 2003. In US dollar terms, the growth was less favourable growing at 24% down from 38% last year due to the currency affect.

A spokesperson for Fitzrovia stated that the increase was “pretty good” and showed “a continuance of healthy growth”.

Administration and custody services for domiciled and non-domiciled funds totalled $950.1bn in 4,498 funds, compared with $768.7bn in 4,082 funds last year.

Total net assets in Dublin-domiciled funds increased by 19.2% to $622.7bn in 2,334 funds and subfunds.

According to Lipper Fitzrovia, State Street continued to command the largest market share, at 22.7%, for its $141.2bn of assets under administration. At $139.6bn it also topped the custody table.

“State Street remains proud that our market leadership is reflected through our number one position on the Fitzrovia table,” said Gavin Nangle, head of business development at State Street International Ireland.

AIB/BNY, a joint venture between Allied Irish Banks and Bank of New York, was ranked second, while the Bank of Ireland came in third in both analyses.

PricewaterhouseCoopers audited more than a quarter of the funds (1,566). Dillan Eustace remained the largest legal advisor, while A&L Goodbody advised the majority by total net assets.

Of the 296 fund management companies domiciled in Ireland, US firms accounted for the bulk by total net assets ($264.9bn) followed by the UK and Germany, said the Lipper Fitzrovia spokesperson.

Lipper Fitzrovia also revealed that Barclays/BGI had $82.4bn AUM, Goldman Sachs had $51.8bn, Russell Investment stood at $32.7bn and Deutsche Bank had $25.1bn.

According to David Dillon of Dillon Eustace: “The figures this year are a continuing encouragement to the industry, but I feel we are at a watershed in terms of global and perhaps more particularly European regulation.

“We must devote our attention in Ireland to sensible proportionality lest we strangle the achievements to date. This is entirely consistent with recent pronouncements by EU commissioner McCreevy.”

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