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Global Finance Academy (GFA) Ireland, a joint initiative by University College Dublin and the Institute of Bankers, is an educational and research resource of outstanding reputation for the financial services industry.  It is an Academy which is distinguished by:

1. An outstanding teaching and research faculty
2. A deep knowledge of global trends in the financial services industry
3. A comprehensive understanding of the factors that drive the development of the financial services industry worldwide and of how these factors are likely to evolve in future years
4. A set of teaching programmes from basic introductory to advanced graduate and post-graduate courses, which provide state-of-the-art knowledge of the core disciplines that underpin the financial services industry and that attracts outstanding students from Ireland and around the world
5. A research agenda which serves to advance the frontiers of knowledge in the disciplines that drive superior performance by financial services firms and which applies the strong intellectual capital of the Academy to improve operational performance by these firms.

Recent studies conducted by the Government and its development agencies, in partnership with the industry and academic institutions, have identified a number of key strategic issues relevant to the future development of the financial services industry in Ireland.  These issues include:

1. The financial services industry is a central and increasingly important component of Ireland’s national economic development strategy.
2. The instruments of policy that drove the successful development of the industry over the past 20 years require to be redesigned and reformulated in the context of the platform of financial services activities now in place, the less advantageous cost base compared with the position that prevailed when the IFSC was first established, the emerging international trends in the industry and the opportunities for new development that have been identified.
3. Central to the cluster of factors that will drive the future development of the industry in Ireland is the need to lift the skills, training, education and research for the sector to a significantly higher level of attainment. These changes are needed to enhance the productivity of current operations and to provide a stronger platform for the development and delivery of new high-value-added products and activities.  Well-focussed, results-oriented research will, increasingly, represent a significant source of competitive advantage for firms within the financial services industry in Ireland.
4. The Government strategy document for the development of the financial services industry in Ireland - Building on Success (2006) - provides the public policy platform on which the required financial and institutional resources will be put in place, in consultation with the industry itself, to bring about the required upgrading of training, education and research in the financial services sector.
5. The changes required to address these strategic issues need to be driven strongly by the industry itself, by an academic leadership in finance-related disciplines of high international reputation and by resolute action on the part of the Government and on the part of its development and educational agencies.

The establishment jointly by UCD and the Institute of Bankers of a research and education academy in financial services of high international status – Global Finance Academy Ireland - marks a significant milestone in delivering the actions needed to meet the training, education and research requirements for the further development of the financial services industry in Ireland.

A major transformation of the landscape for high-level education, training and research in financial services is essential if the significant opportunities emerging for the further development of the financial services industry in Ireland are to be realised.  The challenge that Ireland faces in achieving such a transformation is similar to that faced by leading centres of financial services world-wide.

The creation of a Finance Academy which undertakes and leads high-quality activities of scale, substance and outstanding reputation in finance-related training, education and research is critical to the full exploitation of the opportunities available to bring the financial services industry in Ireland to its next stage of development. The establishment of Global Finance Academy (GFA)  Ireland is fully aligned with this national strategic need.  GFA Ireland operates as a hub of excellence in education and research for the finance industry with strong direct links to the industry and increasingly strong collaboration with other universities and research and education bodies in Ireland and around the world.

GFA Ireland's is an internationally acknowledged centre of excellence in education and research in finance.  It provides graduates, up to doctorate and post-doctorate levels of high academic achievements who fully meet with needs of the financial services industry in Ireland and in other financial centres.  GFA Ireland undertakes research which is both of academic excellence and highly relevant to the financial services industry.  This research shapes the content and teaching of the Academy’s educational programmes, from foundation level to third and fourth levels, to create graduates with the skills and knowledge in strong demand by the financial services industry and with an outstanding capability for future growth and development.

GFA Ireland operates as a hub for research and education programmes in financial services in Ireland with many “spokes” which extend to research and education centres in financial services in Ireland and overseas.  Developing further inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary collaborations is a core operational principle of the Academy.  It operates within the College of Business and Law from a dedicated multi-purpose building, located on the campus of the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business at UCD.  It also has a strong presence in the Dublin IFSC/Docklands area through the Conference and Learning Centre of the Institute of Bankers to facilitate its research and education links with the financial services industry and provides a number of courses on a distance learning platform both within Ireland and overseas.

 GFA Ireland operates under a corporate governance structure comprising Academic and Management Boards, with a panel of members each of whom is highly distinguished in their fields.  The Academic Board includes six former Presidents of the American Finance Association.  It also includes Professors of Finance from the leading universities in the United States in the field of finance including Yale, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, Cornell, UCLA, Purdue and Boston College.  The Management Board is led by Mr David Went, the former Chief Executive of Irish Life & Permanent and former President of the Institute of Bankers.  It includes members from the highest level of the financial services industry in Ireland. There are interlocking memberships of the Boards which operate under the highest standards of: accountability, transparency and competency.