Ireland is lobbying global banking authorities in Switzerland to become the base for the organisation that will set up and implement a worldwide system for tracking players on the money markets.

The Basel-based Financial Stability Board (FSB) sets global bank standards and is creating a new agency to implement a planned system of assigning unique Legal Entity Identifier numbers to all participants in the capital markets to ensure greater transparency.

The Department of Finance and Enterprise Ireland are lobbying to have the new agency set up here, Neil Ryan, assistant secretary at the department, said yesterday.

He was speaking at the annual conference of the Federation of International Banks, in Dublin.

Earlier, it emerged that seven out of 10 international insurance companies based in Ireland believe our regulatory regime is more demanding than other EU counties.

The regulatory burden is now the top challenge facing firms, with more than half concerned about implementing Solvency II, the EU Directive to harmonise the sector, according to the survey by PWC.

The survey – on market prospects, opportunities and challenges in Ireland – was launched at the European Insurance Forum being held in Dublin.