Credit Suisse opens first Irish trading floor, creates 100 jobs

Credit Suisse will today open a trading floor in Dublin, which will employ 100 staff by the year's end for its prime services business in Europe. These roles, located in Spencer Dock in the IFSC, have been transferred from London and will include 40 trading, risk and capital professionals and 60 middle office and support roles.

The Dublin operation will offer prime brokerage, prime financing and securities lending, all of which serve clients across global markets. It will handle the trading, capital and risk management for the business while the sales people and relationship managers will remain in London due to client proximity.

This move follows the Central Bank of Ireland's announcement in December that it had authorised Credit Suisse to establish a branch in Ireland.

Mike Paliotta, who is global head of prime services at Credit Suisse, said the decision to relocate the roles in Dublin followed a "jurisdictional review" of its operation a couple of years ago and was not related to a potential British exit from the EU connected with a referendum in the UK on the matter later this year.

"Our decision was made some time ago to choose Dublin so I don't see any connection with a potential Brexit," he said. "We've have some past experiences in Dublin and we know the financial services industry is strong and solid, as is asset management and administration in Dublin. Paliotta said Ireland was also a major centre for fund domicile, management and administration. He declined to comment on which other locations were considered before Dublin was chosen but said the operation here would be a "key part" of its equities franchise.

"We spent a great deal of time thinking about the best location of our European prime business. We're very comfortable about the regulatory environment in Dublin, supported by Finma [the Swiss markets regulator]. The business is a strong business and we've had a lot of very good client dialogue around our move to Dublin." Some 40 staff are already in place, with that number likely to rise to 100 by the end of this year.

The move by Credit Suisse comes as Ireland's financial regulator has expressed concern about the "major impact" a UK exit from the EU could have for Ireland's biggest banks and has asked them to spell out how they would handle the risks and challenges of Brexit.

Cyril Roux, who became Ireland's regulator in October 2013, has also hinted he would not ask for a second term when his contract expires in 2018. Mr Roux said Brexit could have a "very large impact on Bank of Ireland" because "all of a sudden half of its business is no longer conducted in the EU, but outside the EU".

"If I take another example ... Ulster Bank would no longer be a subsidiary of a bank within the EU, it would be a subsidiary of a non-EU bank. So in both cases I think it would have a major impact on these banks."

The regulator said those large exposures had prompted his team to ask the banks to "look at the impact of Brexit on their businesses under a number of fronts" including "on their business model, on their governance, on their funding and liquidity, their capital adequacy, their legal arrangements".

He would not say how long banks had to return their submissions, but said it was a "natural" part of normal supervision. Insurance firms will also be asked to examine how they would be affected, he added.