FSI Statement on new Personal Investment Accounts
Reacting to the detail of the scheme revealed this morning, Financial Services Ireland Director, Patricia Callan, said:
"As the whole of industry representative organisation, Financial Services Ireland in Ibec, convened a Taskforce of senior industry leaders earlier this year, to produce a set of recommendations for how the EU Commission “Savings and Investment Union” (SIU) proposal for EU member states to introduce retail investment accounts, could best be realised in Ireland. We are delighted to see the majority of those recommendations have been adopted, along with continuing commitments to reform the overall tax regime, which disincentivises investment, including the deemed disposal rule.
This scheme has the potential to deliver huge benefits both for individuals and their finances, and for society as a whole. To maximise take up by citizens, industry leaders have advocated for a scheme that is simple and easy to use, with tax incentives built in to the design, and that can be provided through the huge breadth of financial services firms. The details that have been revealed this morning make clear that flexibility and user-friendliness will be at the heart of the new Investment accounts. This will be very important to encourage uptake and realise the benefits that this scheme can provide.
While we await the final details of the tax elements of the scheme in the upcoming Budget, we warmly welcome the advance publication of the principles expected tomorrow, which we had requested early sight of to enable firms to move into product design phase now, which in turn will facilitate an earlier launch of the products in 2027."
