Written answers
Thursday, 5 December 2019
Department of Finance
Central Bank of Ireland Data
Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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67. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of open roles in the Central Bank by functional area and position; the length of time the role has remained unfilled in each case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51024/19]
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the Central Bank that it has 86 open roles as at the end of November, which are at varying stages of the recruitment process. The average time to hire is currently nine weeks. I refer the Deputy to the following table which provides a full breakdown of active vacancies by Pillar and Directorate.
| Pillar name | Directorate | # Active Vacancies |
|---|---|---|
| Central Banking | Economics and Statistics | 3 |
| Central Banking | Corporate Affairs | 8 |
| Central Banking | Financial Stability | 2 |
| Total | 13 | |
| Pillar name | Directorate | # Active Vacancies |
| Financial Conduct | Consumer Protection | 10 |
| Financial Conduct | Enforcement | 2 |
| Financial Conduct | Policy and Risk | 8 |
| Financial Conduct | Securities & Markets Supervision | 3 |
| Total | 23 | |
| Pillar name | Directorate | # Active Vacancies |
| Prudential Regulation | Asset Management Supervision | 3 |
| Prudential Regulation | Credit Institutions | 9 |
| Prudential Regulation | Insurance | 9 |
| Prudential Regulation | Office of Deputy Governor | 1 |
| Prudential Regulation | Prudential Analysis & Inspections | 10 |
| Total | 32 | |
| Pillar name | Directorate | # Active Vacancies |
| Chief Operations Officer | Human Resources | 13 |
| Chief Operations Officer | Information Management Training | 5 |
| Total | 18 | |
| Overall total | 86 |
Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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68. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of licence applications made to the Central Bank between 2014 and 2019 by the type of financial services provider, that is, retail credit firm and so on; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51025/19]
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Central Bank informs me that as a general point, the Bank cannot comment on regulatory relationships or applications for authorisation. The Central Bank is committed to providing a clear, open and transparent authorisation process while ensuring a rigorous assessment of the applicable regulatory standards. To support this, on a semi-annual basis, the Central Bank publishes a Regulatory Service Standards Performance Report, which is up to date to H1 2019. The document sets out the Central Bank’s performance against Service Standards that it has committed to in respect of authorisation of FSPs and Investment Funds processing of PCF IQ applications and contact management. These reports can be found on the Bank's website in the following link:
The Central Bank can, however, more broadly comment on the number of licences granted on an ongoing basis. Information on these is provided in the following table, categorised by type of provider.
| 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 (to date) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Intermediaries, including - Investment Intermediaries - Insurance/Reinsurance Intermediaries - Mortgage Intermediaries | 194 | 214 | 180 | 231 | 139 | 144 |
| Money Transmitters and Bureaux de Change | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Moneylenders* | 38 | 39 | 39 | 39 | 38 | 35 |
| Retail Credit Firms & Home Reversion Firms | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Credit Servicing Firms | N/A | N/A | N/A** | 8 | 1 | 0*** |
| Payment Institutions | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Electronic Money Institutions | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Debt Management Firms | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Funds (including sub-funds) | 807 | 953 | 775 | 828 | 1123 | 625 |
| Internally Managed AIFMs | 18 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| ICAV registrations | N/A | 129 | 145 | 144 | 125 | 60 |
| Banking licenses | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Insurance and reinsurance undertaking | 7 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 8 |
| Trust or Company Service Providers | 30 | 7 | 5 | 27 | 4 | 1 |
| MiFID - Investment firms | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 20 |
| MiFID - Branches of overseas firms | 5 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Non-Retail Investment Business Firms | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Fund Service Providers | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 19 | 15 |
| AIFMs - Authorised External AIFMs | 54 | 10 | 4 | 7 | 17 | 17 |
| AIFMs - Registered External AIFMs | 25 | 6 | 8 | 13 | 6 | 5 |
| Post Authorisation Extensions**** | - | - | - | 10 | 7 | 14 |
| Acquiring Transactions | 52 | 47 | 71 | 59 | 52 | 51 |
*A moneylender’s licence is valid for a 12 month period and must be renewed annually prior to expiry. This category includes licences issued for the first time and renewals.
**Part V of the Central Bank Act, 1997 was amended by the Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing) Act 2015 to provide for a regulatory regime in respect of credit servicing firms, bringing such firms within the Central Bank’s regulatory remit. The first authorisations were issued in 2017.
***37 Credit Servicing Firms have notified the Central Bank that they wish to avail of the transitional provisions provided for under Section 34FA(1) of the Central Bank Act, 1997 as further amended by the Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing) Act 2018 in H1 2019.
**** Refers to existing authorised firms that extended their regulatory permissions during the period.
Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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69. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of open licence applications with the Central Bank; the length of time these applications have remained open; the type of financial services provider in each case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51026/19]
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Central Bank cannot comment publicly on individual regulatory relationships or the applications for authorisation of specific firms.
Information relating to the number of applications that have been processed by the Central Bank is published on its website, available at:
The Central Bank publishes Regulatory Service Standards Performance reports twice a year.
The H1 2019 report is available at:
The report for H2 2019 will be published in early 2020.
For the Deputy's convenience, the H1 2019 information is summarised in the table in the following link.
">HI Information
*Number of submissions received in relation to all applications. An application will typically have multiple submissions prior to being cleared/authorised.
During the period January to June 2019, there were:
35 applications / submissions withdrawn by the applicant firm, and
21 applications / submissions deemed dormant due to lack of engagement from the applicant firm.
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