During the past few years, the Irish Funds industry has been focused on taking full advantage of the opportunities that the Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities III (UCITS III) Directive presents. This had led to significant innovation in production, principally through the use of financial derivative instruments such as the use of total return swaps by index tracking and exchange traded funds, the development of 130/30 type funds and the expansion of money market funds.
UCITS funds currently represent 80% of the total net asset value of Irish registered funds. The total number of Irish registered funds as at 31 December, 2007 was 4,780. The administration of non-Irish registered funds is another critical component of the Irish Funds industry and, based on figures provided by the Lipper Ireland Fund Encyclopaedia, there were 2,752 of such funds being administered in Ireland as of 30 June, 2007. These funds are almost exclusively alternative investment funds.
