Hancock’s Manulife plans Dublin move

Dearbhail McDonald MANULIFE Asset Management (MAM) — which has some €336bn of assets under investment — is set to open an office in the IFSC in a major boost for the financial services sector as Brexit looms.

The global investment behemoth, which trades as John Hancock in the US, and Manulife elsewhere, is understood to have sought authorisation from the Central Bank of Ireland.

In line with many financial services firms that have sought authorisations, the initial footprint in terms of jobs created by MAM, which did not respond to queries, will not exceed 50. Earlier this month MAM, which has its headquarters in Toronto, Canada, named Morten Simonsen as managing director and head of distribution for Northern Europe as MAM seeks to expand in the region.

In 2017, the Central Bank authorised 295 firms in total and the additional Brexit-related work has strained resources. In a report on authorisations for the first half of this year, the regulator said it failed to meet its processing targets for nonEU authorised investment management firms for the first time due to a 27pc spike in submissions in the second quarter versus a year ago.

Barclays, which is setting up a standalone subsidiary — and which will bring assets of some €250bn to Ireland — is the largest Brexit win to date.