Ocorian Irish Fund Services has been granted three new licences by the Central Bank of Ireland, making it one of just a few non-bank providers based in Ireland able to offer a full range of services for a wider range of clients.
The firm, which has offered corporate and capital market services in Ireland for 15 years, has secured licences covering Alternative Investment Fund Management services, fund administration services and real asset depositary services.
Founded in Jersey in 1971 as Bedell Trust, Ocorian is a global provider of trust, administration and fiduciary services for companies, institutions, individuals and funds.
In February 2020, Ocorian merged with peer funds services provider Estera and the company provides fund administration services to over 1,000 businesses across 14 onshore and offshore jurisdictions including Luxembourg, Jersey, Guernsey, UK, Cayman Islands and Mauritius.
Mike Hughes, global head of service lines at Ocorian, said the licences will enable the company to offer clients a wider choice of domicile for their funds within the European Union.
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“In Ireland we have been offering corporate and capital market services to businesses engaged in aircraft leasing, securitisation, and cross border financing, so it was an easy decision to expand our strategic footprint in Ireland and offer a wider range of services to our clients,” said Hughes.
Hughes added that Ocorian expects strong growth in Ireland’s fund management industry fuelled by more US fund managers choosing to domicile their structures in Ireland as they launch into Europe, as well as demand from UK managers looking at alternative institutional domiciles.
He added that Ocorian is also targeting existing managers who are looking for a higher level of expert client service and a single point of accountability for their relationship.
According to IDA Ireland, Ireland’s new Investment Limited Partnerships (ILP) Act has made the country even more competitive for private investment funds, particularly those based in the UK, US, Europe, and Asia.
There is increased interest from private equity managers looking to establish parallel European structures to existing offshore funds to distribute to European investors, according to the agency.
Ireland is firmly established as Europe’s leading centre for alternative funds and the largest hedge fund domicile with 40% of global hedge funds serviced in the country.
Currently, over 1,000 fund managers from 50-plus countries have assets administered in Ireland with 17 of the world’s top 20 global asset managers offering Irish-domiciled funds.
