Irish fund managers say hard Brexit could be disastrous

Irish fund managers are already making plans to manage the fall-out from a hard Brexit, according to new research out today, with 83% of respondents saying there have been active discussions in their organisation about how to manage this.

Almost two-thirds (63%) of fund managers surveyed say their organisation has discussed the option of moving UK operations to Dublin after Brexit, while 60% say that a hard Brexit could be disastrous for the Irish economy.

The study, conducted by online board portal provider eShare, with delegates at the recent Annual Global Funds Conference 2017 in Dublin, also revealed that more than half of respondents (51%) believe Brexit to be the single biggest issue the Irish funds sector is currently facing.

“While the impact of Brexit on the Irish funds sector is of course unknown at this stage, it is clear that Irish fund managers are taking the prospect of a hard Brexit very seriously indeed,” said Alister Esam, CEO, eShare. “The fact so many are considering moving their HQ operations to Dublin highlights the uncertainty in the market and there are potentially some very tough decisions to be made. That’s why it is so important for transparency into that decision making over the next 18 months, so clients and stakeholders can see why decisions were made and how they were arrived at.”