Ireland: Financial Services

The European Commission has proposed significant amendments to the EU's securitisation framework, aiming to remove barriers in the market while maintaining investor protections. With the Council and Parliament having finalized their positions, trilogue negotiations are now underway under Ireland's EU Presidency, testing the balance between market liberalization and regulatory safeguards.

Rob Cain and Sarah Thompson examine the implications of Ireland's transposition of CRD VI Article 21c, focusing on cross-border lending challenges, reverse solicitation exemptions, and grandfathering provisions.

Ireland's EU Council Presidency has launched a legislative-political agenda for the financial services sector, prioritizing competitiveness, simplification, and strategic resilience aligned with the Draghi and Letta reports. The program shifts EU financial market regulation from post-crisis risk reduction toward capital market deepening and digital sovereignty, with binding delivery commitments and timelines through year-end 2026.

The Central Bank of Ireland has published a consultation on proposed refinements to the domestic actuarial regime under Solvency II, while the European Commission adopted a communication addressing competitiveness challenges in the EU banking sector. EIOPA completed its Solvency II review mandate by publishing the final set of guidelines and technical standards for the amended framework.

From January 2027, non-EU credit institutions providing core banking services to Irish aviation borrowers must navigate new Article 21c requirements under CRD VI. This guidance examines transaction-level analysis...

The Central Bank of Ireland (“CBI”) has published the second edition of its Payments and E-Money Newsletter (the “Newsletter”), providing an update on its supervisory priorities, regulatory developments and key focus areas for payment institutions and electronic money institutions.

This July 2026 edition of Funds Focus examines critical regulatory developments affecting asset management and investment funds, including new CBI UCITS Regulations, ESMA's risk management supervision initiative, and the EU Retail Investment Strategy updates. The briefing provides fund managers with essential compliance deadlines, regulatory changes, and supervisory actions that will shape the investment funds landscape in the coming months.

The EU Retail Investment Strategy introduces sweeping reforms to the retail investor protection framework, fundamentally changing how UCITS management companies and AIFMs assess costs...

Ireland has transposed the EU's Distance Marketing of Financial Services Directive II into national law through new regulations that fundamentally reshape how financial services firms must interact with consumers online. The European Union (Distance Contracts for Financial Services) Regulations 2026 introduce stringent pre-contractual disclosure requirements, mandatory online cancellation functions, and explicit prohibitions against manipulative interface design. Digital financial service providers must now