financial engine or glorified back office? dublin's international financial services centre...

Area (1 998) 30.2, 157-1 65

Financial Dublin’s

engine or glorified back office? International Financial Services Centre going global

Laurence Murphy Department of Geography, University of Auckland, Private Bag 9201 9, Auckland, NEW ZEALAND.

Email: [email protected]

Revised manuscript received 12 November 1997.

Summary Considerable geographical analysis has been directed towards understanding the emergence and development of ‘world cities‘ and their role in the coordination o f the global economy. In particular, there has been an emphasis on exploring the character and nature of financial services located in these centres. In examining global centres, ‘other‘ places are often implicitly constructed as peripheries. Yet these ‘peripheries’ have been experiencing significant transformations in the nature of their integration into the global economy. In this paper, I chart the rise of Dublin’s International Financial Services Centre as an example of a regulated site that has emerged as a niche centre in international corporate and financial transactions.

Introduction

Dublin has long been the financial capital of Ireland, with the Central Bank, the Stock Exchange and the headquarters of national retail banks and building societies all being located in the city. The city is a financial centre that coordinates and services the needs of domestic capital. In 1991, Dublin accounted for 38 per cent of national employment in the ’Commerce, Insurance, Finance and Business Services’ sector (Drudy and MacLaran 1994). As a financial centre, the Dublin metropolitan region has structural components that make it comparable to a regional financial centre such as Manchester in the UK. However, the creation of a spatially discrete ’offshore financial centre’, with i ts own regulatory environment sponsored by the Irish government, has repositioned Dublin within international financial markets and the discourses of financial success.

Established on the eve of the 1987 global sharemarket crash, Dublin’s International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) has overcome early problems to emerge as an important financial centre in Europe. Initially planned as a ‘mini-London’, the centre has evolved, via a process of ‘flexible regulation’, as an

important niche centre, with strengths in insurance, reinsurance, corporate treasury activities and back- office banking functions. As of 1996, the IFSC was home to over 400 companies, employed over 3200 workers, accounted for f 2 5 billion of bank loans and contributed f200 million in corporate taxes (Keena 1996). The success of the centre owes much to its low-tax regulatory environment, created by the Irish government and sanctioned by the European Commission, but also to the promotional activities of the Industrial Development Agency (IDA). Ireland has long been an ‘entrepreneurial state’ when it comes to attracting foreign capital; what is significant about the IFSC is that it represents an important attempt to reposition Ireland in the international division of labour. This paper sets out the structural characteristics of the IFSC and asks whether its success marks a new ‘globalized’ era for a city that is busily reinventing itself.

Between New York and London: reading global cities and centres

In order to explore the nature and implications of the development of Dublin’s IFSC, I will draw upon

158 Murphy

several sets of geographical literature: the ’world cities’ thesis, analyses of global financial centres and work on branch-plant economies. Whilst the first two literatures are often intertwined, they are implicitly constructed in opposition to the literature on branch plants. Indeed, a branch-plant global financial centre is an oxymoron of significant proportions. Yet, I shall argue that the IFSC embodies many contradic- tions that allow one to reflect upon the ’multiplex’ (Amin and Graham 1997) nature of cities.

The ’global cities’ thesis suggests that modern capitalist processes of uneven development have resulted in the creation of a global urban hierarchy (Friedmann 1986). At the top of this hierarchy sit the ‘global cities’ of London, New York and Tokyo. These cities have benefited from considerable centralizing forces and are nuclei of global industrial and financial command functions (Knox and Taylor 1995; Sassen 1991; 1994). It is argued that the economic well-being of these cities has become detached from the local economy in which they are located, and that they have become embedded in a truly global set of economic relations. Considerable attention has been directed toward uncovering the economic, social and cultural bases of these cities. The initial emphasis on global cities as centres of corporate control has given way to a focus on these sites as financial markets and sites for the ‘production of financial innovation’ (Hamnett 1995, 1 15).

Allied to this literature is the work that has focused on financial centres. This second set of literature can be divided in two: the economic and the sociogeographical. The economic has focused on the internal characteristics of centres and has resulted in the development of typologies of international financial centres, based on size of eurocurrency transactions, nature of banking operations, etc. Reed (19811, using a multivariate analysis of characteristics of international financial centres, identifies a hierarchy of centres: host, international and supranational centres, with supranational centres being ‘pre-eminent in finance, communications and management’ (Reed 1989, 250). Reed’s work focuses primarily on banking and ignores wider financial services (insurance and corporate treasury), but, significantly, he identifies a range of centres from London and New York to Luxembourg and Bahrain.

Within the more sociogeographical literature on international financial centres, attention has been focused on the cities of London and New York, with emphasis being placed upon the controlling influ- ence of these centres in the international flow of

financial and producer services (Budd 1996; Budd and Whimster 1992; Pryke and Lee 1996; Thrift 1987; 1994). This literature stresses the nature and intensity of competition between these various sites of accumulation. The hypermobility of financial capital, a potential Achilles heel of these megacentres, is bounded by the benefits of ‘institutional thickness’. Within an intensely competitive regime of finance, where margins are measured in basis points (one- hundredth of 1 per cent), volume of activity is crucial. In the economy of the new international financial system, place matters (Pryke 1991; 1994). Amin and Thrift, in reflecting on the ‘significance of centred places in a global economy’, argue that certain districts or neo-Marshallian nodes

act as a collective ’brain’, as centres of excellence in a given industry, offering for collective consumption local contact networks, knowledge structures and a plethora of institutions underwriting individual entrepreneurship (1992, 577).

They argue that these nodes (eg the City of London) are particularly important for industries engaged in knowledge-based competition or operating within volatile markets such as financial services. They further contend that knowledge structures and institutions, which form the growth engine within these localities, are difficult for other regions to capture. Thus, ’efforts to encourage Marshallian growth in other areas through the formation of highly localized production systems are likely to fail’ (Amin and Thrift 1992, 585).

In focusing primarily on the ’central places’ of the global economy, these literatures have implicitly constructed other places as peripheries. It is interesting to note that, beyond London, New York and Tokyo, the financial centres that have attracted geographers’ attention have been the furtive spaces of tax havens (Roberts 1994). However, other cities/centres/ places exhibit a dynamism that is distinct from the ‘big three’ favoured in the literature (Moricz and Murphy 1997). These ’peripheries’ are worthy of our attention.

The third literature to which I wish to refer focuses on the nature of branch-plant economies. Since Massey‘s (1 984) seminal work on spatial divisions of labour, much attention has been directed towards examining the spatial organization of multinational and transnational corporations (see Dicken 1992) and the effects of branch-plant operations on local economies. Eagerly sought after by national and local governments, branch plants offer employment

Financial engine or glorified back office? 159

opportunities for regions suffering from economic decline or desiring economic ‘lift-off. However, branch plants are no panacea for the economic woes of regional economies, since they usually pro- duce low-skilled and low-paid jobs, promote trun- cated local labour markets, utilize old manufacturing technologies and increase external dependency. Branch-plant economies are constantly exposed to the threat of devalorization in the face of new waves of corporate restructuring. Yet, for many regions, the economic realities are such that it is better to have a branch plant than no plant, and the best branch might be a financial back office (see Daniels 1995). Whilst Amin and Thrift (1 992) see little likelihood of localities copying the success of London, they acknowledge the potential of

upgrading the position of the locality within international corporate hierarchies and networks by improvements to the locality’s skill, research supply and infrastructure base in order to attract ’better quality’ branch investment (1 992, 585).

Dublin’s IFSC represents just such an attempt at upgrading.

Ireland has long been known as a branch-plant economy (Perrons 1988), which has, through the offices of the Industrial Development Agency, developed a reputation for actively and profession- ally securing multinational corporate investment. The IFSC’s success represents the application of the IDA’S expertise in attracting inward investment, but in a new realm. The financial centre is about branch plants (or back offices) and relatively low wages; but it is also about graduate employment opportunities and emerging institutional thickness. Dublin is becoming an important ’centre’ of US corporate treasury operations and banking activities for the whole of Europe. The IFSC’s story ties a diverging set of literatures together in a potentially novel way and is an appropriate case study for reflecting on the idea of local institutional development.

Branch-plant Ireland and the genesis of the IFSC

Since the 1960s’ Irish industrial policy has been designed to attract foreign direct investment. Irish manufacturing is strongly export-oriented, although there are significant differences in the activities of indigenous and foreign-owned firms. Foreign-owned firms are export intensive, with 86 per cent of their output being exported. Moreover, multinational

branch plants account for 90 per cent of the country’s high-technology exports (Foley and Griffith 1992). In the early 199Os, overseas companies employed 90 000 people and were ‘responsible for 50 per cent of industrial output and 75 per cent of industrial exports’ (Grimes 1993, 485).

Originally, Britain was the main source of foreign direct investment, but its role has been supplanted by North American, Japanese and European investments, especially in the high-technology sectors (Walker 1992). Branch-plant operations have tended to avoid large urban centres, with most new employment being located in the less developed western regions. These plants have tended to occupy a relatively subordinate role in the international division of labour, being primarily assembly plants, with limited material linkages to the national economy. Employment has generally been at a low skill level, and has been dominated by low-paid female employment (Breathnach 1993).

Despite Ireland’s success in attracting inward investment, policy-makers have recognized the need to upgrade the nature of this investment. Highly publicized branch-plant closures (Walker 1992) have demonstrated the vulnerability of the economy to corporate restructuring and competition from emerging production sites. The IDA now seeks to attract ‘quality’ investment that involves skilled and/or graduate employment. This policy shift, com- bined with a desire to rejuvenate decaying urban centres such as Dublin, laid the foundation for the development of the IFSC. The Urban Renewal Act (1986) designated a number of sites in Dublin for renewal, including the disused Custom House Docks. Based on the British urban development corporation experience, the planning of this dock- land area was transferred from the local authority to an independent Custom House Docks Development Authority, charged with developing an integrated scheme. This eleven-hectare site was subsequently chosen to be the location of the IFSC (MacLaran 1993).

From the outset, the IFSC was promoted as a means of creating jobs for Ireland’s burgeoning graduate employment market. Ireland’s desperate need for jobs was seen as an appropriate justification for the European Commission’$ sanctioning of this low-tax offshore centre. Developing on a history of place marketing, the Irish government offered a number of tax and capital incentives to prospective financial operations based in the IFSC (Table 1). To avail of the incentives on offer, firms were required

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Table 1

10% corporate tax rate on trading income 0 Guaranteed to 31 December 2005 0 Time limit on approvals 31 December 2000 A range of double taxation treaties

24 counties covered, including USA, Canada, Japan, Korea, Germany N o withholding tax on dividends and interest Availability of tax-based financing Zero tax on certain fund-management entities owned exclusively by non-Irish residents

Dublin‘s IFSC tax benefits

to make firm job commitments. This was not meant to be a simple ’brassplate’ centre. Once the conces- sions were set in place, the IDA began to promote the centre in an aggressive global campaign.

The 1987 global sharemarket crash, and sub- sequent financial shakeout, damaged the IDA’S dreams of creating dynamic futures and FOREX markets. The centre’s brand-new trading floors failed to attract the dealers that would have made Dublin a rival to London. Yet, notwithstanding these early problems, the centre attracted business: surprisingly, ‘blue chip’ business. Demonstrating a willingness to adopt flexible regulatory practices, the Irish government and the IDA decided to built upon the ‘niche‘ characteristics of this nascent centre.

Attracting multinationals, money and jobs The centre’s tax regime, coupled with Dublin’s position in the European Union, which was rapidly losing its borders, proved attractive to insurance, reinsurance and corporate treasury activities. As part of wider regulatory processes involved in the creation of a single market for financial services, the European Commission implemented a number of directives within the banking, financial services and insurance sectors. This legislation was designed to open domestic financial markets to competition. A key legislative development that enhanced the position of Dublin’s IFSC was the introduction of the Commission’s UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Services) Directive. This ’established the principle that a unit trust that met the basic standards laid out in the directive could be approved in one EC country and sold anywhere in the EC’ (Leyshon and Thrift 1997, 97). Firms located in Dublin‘s IFSC could avail of a low corporate tax regime whilst accessing the EU market. In addition, the UCITS Directive restricted the access of Channel

Island-based funds to the EU, with the result that funds in these centres ‘became less attractive to EC investors compared to Dublin or Luxembourg-based ones‘ (Johns and Le Marchant 1993, 63).

Multinational corporations can establish operations in the centre within a three-tiered structure, consisting of stand-alone companies, agencies or captives. North American and mainland European firms were particularly willing to establish an operation in Dublin. As Table 2 indicates, the IFSC is an international centre that has increasingly developed global dimensions.

The global credentials of the IFSC are not simply based on the geographical source of its companies, but rather on the nature of the companies that have chosen to locate in Dublin. Global corporations such as General Electric, Heinz, Hewlett-Packard and IBM have established significant corporate treasury operations in Dublin (Table 3). IBM’s worldwide treasury operations are centred in only three lo- cations, with Dublin being its European centre (Crowley 1995). Mutual funds managed by international banks such as ABN Ambro, Chase, Citibank, Daiwa and Deutsche Bank (Table 4) amount to over US$21 billion. Chase Manhattan Bank (Ireland) plc employs 158 people and manages over US$IO billion of funds. In December 1996 Deutsche Morgan Grenfell announced plans to move all of its fund administration activities from London to the IFSC (Canniffe 1996). The bank already employs 11 0 people in Dublin, managing over US$7 billion of funds. According to the Chief Executive of the Irish operation, the move confirmed ‘Dublin’s position as a funds administration centre in the true sense rather than as an offshore funds administration centre’ (Canniffe 1996).

Dublin has emerged as an important centre for offshore funds in Europe. In this context, the IFSC is in competition with Luxembourg and the Channel Islands. From virtually a standing start, Dublin has

Financial engine or glorified back office? 1 6 1

Table 2 Geographical analysis of approved ‘stand-alone’ IFSC operations, 1996

Origin Banking and Mutual funds Treasury Insurance Securities, trading, Total asset finance others

Europe USA Ireland UK Japan Canada Others

Total

37 10 18 3

11 2

10

91

5 18 2

14

2 4

45

-

11 17 5 13

10 7 4 10

1 2

6 3

__

36 53

5 14 17

1

1 2

40

-

75 60 54 32 12 7

25

265

Note: Europe refers to Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium (in

Source: IDA 1996 information pack (unpublished) order of number of operations)

Table 3 Corporate treasuries located at the IFSC Table 4 Mutual fund operations

Aer Lingus AlG Financial Products Airbus Industries Analog Devices Barlo Group BCL Entertainment Corp Black & Decker British Land Cadbury Consolidated Press Holdings CRH plc Danisco Ericsson ES B Gelderse Papiergroep

General Electric Grafton Group Grand Metropolitan Guinness Heinz Hewlett-Packard IBM Corporation IT1 Kofisca Trading Co Nutricia Pfizer Porsche Securitas Smurfit Volkswagen

Source: IDA website (http://www.ida.ie)

taken advantage of its position within Europe to compete successfully with the Channel Islands (see Table 51, while its low corporate tax regime has also allowed it to compete with Luxembourg. Moreover, the IFSC is still growing, with managed funds increasing to US$33 billion in 1996 (Irish Times 1997).

In terms of banking operations, the centre has been successful in attracting key global players (Table 6). Banking activities have tended to focus on back-office functions such as cash handling, prepar- ing financial statements and administration (Econo- mist 1996). These operations tend to be labour intensive and are attracted by Ireland’s well-qualified

ABN Amro AIB Banco Santander Bank of Bermuda Bank of Ireland Bankers Trust Baring Brothers Brown Brothers Harriman Chase Manhattan Chemical Bank Citibank NA Clydesdale Commerzbank Daiwa Europe Bank Deutsche Bank Dresdnerflhornton Dunedin Fund Managers E D & F Man Federated Investors FG Gestion Fidelity Investments Frank Russell Gaiacorp CAM Fund Management Gandon Securities Global Fund Services

GT Asset Management Hambros Bank Henderson Crosthwaithe IBT Trust & Custodial John Hancock Kemper Kleinwort Benson Lucky Securities MeesPierson Fund Services Mercury Asset Management Merrill Lynch Premier Administration R&H City Financial Ltd Royal Bank of Scotland plc Morgan Grenfell Natwest Paribas Pioneer Financial Services PNC Salomon Smith Barney Shearson Societe Generale Swiss Bank Corporation Swiss Life Ulster Bank

Source: IDA website

and relatively cheap labour force. Yet, the term ’back office’ should not be constructed as wholly peripheral or inconsequential. Citibank, after some intensive lobbying on the part of the Irish government,

162 Murphy

Table 5 Offshore Funds (1995) an International Com- parison

Centre US$bn Number of funds

Luxembourg 350.0 3400 Dublin 21.0 61 2 Jersey 18.0 384

Isle of Man 1.5 66 Guernsey 15.5 4 74

Source: Payne 1996

Table 6 Banking operations based at the IFSC

ABN Amro Heleba AIB Bank ICC Ansbacher ING Bacob Investors Bank & Trust Banco San Paolo Kredietban k Bank in Liechtenstein MeesPierson Bank of America Mellon Bank Bank of Bermuda Merrill Lynch Bank of Ireland Midland Bank Bankinter Mitsubishi Trust & Bank Baring Brothers Morgan Grenfell BCI National Irish Bank BNP Natwest Brown Brothers Paribas Chase Manhattan PNC Chemical Bank Rabobank Citibank Royal Bank of Scotland Clydesdale Bank Sanwa Cornmerzbank Scotiabank Credit0 Italian0 Sumitomo Daiwa Ulster Bank Dresdner Bank West LB Deutsche Bank Wuerttembuergische Generale Bank

Source: IDA website

announced the establishment of its European administration headquarters in Dublin, and has already begun to advertise for 450 employees. The Dublin operation will result in 110 lay-offs in New York and some job losses in Europe (MacCarthaigh 1996). Merrill Lynch Capital Markets Bank employs 80 people in the IFSC in an operation that was designed to centralize all Merrill Lynch non-dollar capital market activities in Europe. Upwards of 100 of Merrill Lynch’s London dealers are likely to be transferred to Dublin (Creaton 1996). Merrill’s Irish-

American Chief Executive, Dan Tully, has held a board meeting in Dublin and is keen to develop the Irish operation, announcing the opening of branches in Frankfurt and Tokyo. The company was attracted by provisions in Ireland’s Finance Act of 1995 which have been interpreted as having been specifically designed to lure Merrill Lynch to Ireland (Crowley 1995).

Dublin’s IFSC has developed a niche for itself in the international division of financial services by focusing on back-office banking operations and corporate treasury activities. Although no rival to London or New York, Dublin’s niche has global dimensions. Treasuries may be staid compared to derivative trading, but they have been described as ‘the financial engine rooms of companies and banks’ (Economist 1996, 101). The issue for Dublin remains whether it can create the institutional context that will sustain it as a financial centre.

Identity crisis

International financial centres are to a large extent dependent upon their institutional organization for survival (Thrift 1994). ’Locating in the thick of it . . . reaps the advantage of external economies’ (Pryke and Lee 1996, 342), which in turn makes centres competitive and reinforces centralizing tendencies. Yet, the social construction of centres such as the City of London has as much to do with cultural, as institutional, practices (Pryke 1991; 1994; Thrift 1994). Dublin’s IFSC lacks a long history, but is actively constructing its own image. It i s an image embedded within a wider construction of Ireland as the Celtic Tiger Economy (Economist 1997), with the centre established in a city that has experienced considerable property-led regeneration (MacLaran and Murphy 1997). This image embodies contradic- tions and exposes potential problems for the future development of the centre.

At one level, Dublin’s IFSC has been constructed as an offshore tax haven. For a small employment commitment, multinational corporations and institutions can avail of a 10 per cent corporate tax regime and receive considerable support services from the IDA. In the business literature, Dublin is often linked with exotic sites such as Bermuda and the Indian Ocean (Moore 1995). Yet, the IFSC is a regulated site exposed to both Irish and European regulators. The low-tax regime, available to firms establishing in the centre before the year 2000, expires in 2005 and there are no guarantees that the


European Commission will agree to an extension beyond this date. Ireland’s original argument for a low-tax regime was based on the need to create jobs within an economy that has traditionally experienced high levels of unemployment. It was contended that, since 80 per cent of foreign investment into Ireland comes from the US, the incentives did not displace jobs within the EU (Brown 1997a). However, the success of the IFSC has resulted in tensions between finance ministers in the EU. For a brief period in 1991, Dublin was the largest destination of German capital flows (DM7 billion) (Brown 1997b) as German banks set up tax arbitrage operations, which used a double taxation agreement as a means of avoiding German tax. German federal authorities responded to this outflow of funds by initiating a number of court cases against German banks (Brown 1997a) and by revising its foreign taxes legislation.

To counter the increasing criticism of the special status of the IFSC in the EU, the Irish government has actively sought to create a legislative environment within Ireland, which is seen to be pro-business and is designed to convince financial institutions that the IFSC will have a future after 2005. It has been estimated that more than 40 pieces of legislation have been ’enacted to facilitate the financial services industry’ (Brown 199713, 10). In 1997, the Irish government announced its intention to introduce a uniform corporate tax rate of 12.5 per cent, which would become effective for IFSC companies in 2006. This represents an attempt to extend the competitive position of the IFSC beyond the duration of the ’special tax status’ it currently enjoys. However, this move is being challenged by the European Commis- sion’s attempts to harmonize tax rates at much higher levels (Brown 1997a).

Beyond the tax structure of the IFSC, the IDA has attempted to construct Dublin as a competitive European location. Labour quality and costs feature prominently in its promotional literature. Firms located in Dublin can achieve wage savings of 20 per cent compared with London or Luxembourg. Executives of key institutions such as Bankers Trust, Scotiabank, Citibank, etc cite the quality and availability of graduates as an important locational factor in their decision to move to Dublin (Crowley 1995; MacCarthaigh 1996). But, as the Irish government i s all too aware, competing on the basis of cheap labour i s a risky strategy. However, it i s hoped that the centre will create a sufficiently large labour pool, possessing appropriate skills,

which will, in itself, prove attractive to institutions. The IDA is banking on the institutional ‘thickening’ of Dublin.

Conclusions: the legacy of history in a Brave New World

Eleven hectares do not make a city, but Dublin’s IFSC has helped to reposition Dublin in the new international financial system. Concepts of global cities based on command functions such as corporate headquarters would construct Dublin as a periphery. But where do corporate treasuries sit in the organiz- ational hierarchy of multinational corporations? If global cities are cities dependent upon global, rather than local, economic process, then the IFSC is help- ing Dublin to go global, even if it is only to the status of a peripheral world city.

The IFSC i s no London and is unlikely ever to achieve the status of a pre-eminent supranational financial centre (Reed 1981). In this respect, the experience of the IFSC would seem to vindicate Amin and Thrift’s (1992) belief that attempts to replicate Marshallian districts are likely to fail. The early history of the IFSC clearly demonstrates the problems of competing as a mini-London. Yet, the success of the IFSC in terms of back-office, corporate treasury and fund administration operations, demonstrates the extent to which innovative policy measures can promote growth. Whilst this growth may represent branch investment, the emergence of a successful centre generates a dynamic that alters skills and transforms the institutional character of the city. Dublin, as a place, has entered the discourses of international finance. In 1997, Fortune magazine ranked Dublin as the best city in Europe in which to do business (Oliver 1997). Local financial services companies such as tax consultants, accountants and law firms have benefited from the establishment of the IFSC, although they are based outside the regulatory and spatial bounds of the centre. Institutional thickening is occurring, and for certain activities Dublin is globally competitive. What is significant about this development is that it has occurred in a city that has experienced significant economic decline (MacLaran 1993) and would fit Amin and Thrift’s description of a locality that lacked or had lost ‘the social and cultural infrastructure for innovation and transaction-rich competition’ (1 992, 585).

Dublin lies between London and New York in both a literal and a metaphorical sense. Its IFSC embodies global strengths, as well as branch-plant

164 Murphy

insecurities. To be wholly optimistic concerning the future of the IFSC requires a willingness to suspend judgement on the effectiveness of attracting rnulti- national capital in the past. The historical record suggests that Ireland’s success at attracting foreign capital has been marred by the frequency of branch- plant closures. It remains to be seen whether this financial engine will keep running. But then, ‘even neo-Marshallian nodes of global corporate networks are finding it difficult to retain their status’ (Arnin and Thrift 1992, 585).

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