evidenced in debates about, for example, retail banking and insurance issues such as access and pricing. and all of this, while at the same time we are home to both global banks and insurers. ireland has been an attractive location for the payment and e - money and funds sectors. we saw a 138 per cent increase in the number of payment and e - money firms between 2018 and 2021. we have the third largest funds sector in the world. to give you a sense of the changing nature of the system, by the end of 2021, there were nearly 10, 000 regulated entities, up from about 6, 000 in 2016. in the same period, asset values of these entities increased from approximately €3 trillion to €5. 6 trillion. 17 we are seeing a very different pipeline of firms applying to become regulated - firms with novel business models, and firms applying for a number of parallel authorisations. we are seeing some firms do not understand that authorisation is just the beginning. authorisation commences a regulatory and supervisory relationship that will continue for the duration of a firm ’ s existence as a regulated entity. so the nature of firms ’ initial engagements with us inform our understanding of how they will approach regulatory compliance if and when they are authorised. our experience has been and continues to be that firms which understand their proposed business model, the risks inherent in that and the compliance obligations in place to protect the wider system, are the firms which find the authorisation to be most straightforward. ireland is a global financial services centre. we are confident that a credible and thorough authorisation process is part of that story and the continued growth of the sector here. transforming supervision – necessary for the future turning from regulation and authorisation to supervision - as the financial system changes, risks change, the use of data changes, and how we draw insights from data changes. so we must change too. a key priority of mine is to transform our approach to both regulation and supervision so we not only deliver on our mandate today, but we are fit for the future. i see this as an important part of my leadership challenge. our supervisory approach continues to be implemented by experienced and committed people, who are keenly focused on the delivery of our public service mandate. we apply a risk - based approach to supervision recognising that resources are finite and our attention and supervisory effort must be focused on the greatest risks. but the financial services landscape is changing rapidly. the nature and extent of risk is evolving.

philip r lane : prospects for the irish economy speech by mr philip r lane, governor of the central bank of ireland, at the cork chamber of commerce, cork, 23 february 2017. * * * acknowledgements : i thank john flynn and terry quinn for their inputs into this speech. good afternoon. it is a pleasure to have the opportunity to address the cork chamber of commerce. today, i want to focus on the prospects for the irish economy. first, i will give an overview of our latest projections for the economy. next, i will discuss some external challenges facing the economy. finally, i will turn to the role played by our macroprudential mortgage measures in underpinning macro - financial stability. the irish economy : current developments the highly - globalised nature of the irish economy and the impact of the activities of foreign multinational firms on the headline national accounts mean that it is necessary to look at a range of domestically - focused spending and activity indicators to get a more accurate measure of the level and composition of activity in the domestic economy. 1 the evidence from indicators such as employment, consumer spending and a suitably - adjusted measure of investment is that economic activity continues to grow at a significant pace. the recovery of the economy in recent years has been led by the strength of domestic demand. this has been supported by the combination of relatively strong and broad - based growth in employment, increasing real disposable incomes and more favourable financial conditions. since the low point reached in 2012, employment has grown by over 200, 000, at an average annual rate of almost 2. 5 per cent. employment growth has been broadly based across the private sector and has predominantly reflected growth in full - time employment. this has helped incomes to recover and has supported strong growth in consumption in recent years, with per capita consumption moving back towards its pre - crisis peak. 2 the impact of the economic crisis in the south west region ( including cork ) and the subsequent recovery has been broadly similar to the national experience. employment declined by 16 per cent nationally, which was also the scale of the decline in the south west region. since then, both nationally and in the south west, about two - thirds of jobs lost in the crisis have been recovered. however, unemployment at just under 7 per cent nationally and slightly below 6 per cent in the south west remains above pre - crisis levels. in many ways, the economy of the cork region mirrors the national economy, having both significant multinational and domestic components. cork is