Press Statement

Preasráiteas

13 February 2020

Go to release: The Financial Sector in Ireland's National Accounts 2018

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) today (13 February 2020) published The Financial Sector in Ireland’s National Accounts 2018, which examines Ireland’s financial sector, its make up and the impact of the sector on the Irish economy and employment.

Commenting on the publication, Senior Statistician, Christopher Sibley, said: “The Financial Sector in Ireland’s National Accounts provides comprehensive and detailed analysis of the Irish financial sector showing the trends and significance of both the sector as a whole, and the variety of banks, funds, treasuries and other intermediaries that constitute the sector.

This is the second time we have published this analysis of the financial sector and the 2018 publication includes additional research on employment, gender and earnings in the financial sector making use of administrative and other data sources to indicate trends in employment across the sector. The publication breaks down the financial sector by subsector examining unique characteristics of each of the subsectors as well as placing each of them in a common framework. In addition, it provides specific breakdowns of treasury companies and how they fund the Multi-National Enterprises (MNE) sector.

The publication looks at the development of the financial sector from 2009 to 2018 and shows that:

• Between 2009 and 2018, the assets of the financial sector have risen by €1.8 trillion, from €3.4 trillion in 2009 to €5.2 trillion in 2018.
• The expansion in the financial sector assets is mainly driven by investment funds, which has seen growth of €1.9 trillion in assets from 2009 to 2018.
• The contribution to the Irish economy, or gross value added, has risen to €21.7bn from €20.6bn in 2017.
• The financial sector employed over 100,000 people in 2018 with average earnings of over €60,000.
• New employment research shows that while the sector employs an almost equal amount of men and women, it is marked by differences in age and pay across the subsectors.”

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