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DUBLIN, March 27-- Ireland has become a globally recognized centre for specialist international financial services (IFS) with over 200 foreign-owned IFS companies having established their presence in the country, said an Irish minister here on Wednesday. Michael D'Arcy, Minister of State at the Department of Finance of Ireland, said that today Ireland is home to 19 of the world's top 25 financial services companies, 17 of the top 20 global banks, 8 of the top 10 global aircraft lessors with over 60 percent of the world's leased commercial aircraft being owned or managed from Ireland, and 11 of the top 15 insurance companies in the world. Ireland is also the world's third largest funds domicile with 5.5 percent of the global investment fund assets and the fourth largest exporter of financial services in the European Union, said the minister. All these achievements are partially due to the Irish government's International Financial Services 2020 Strategy (IFS2020), he said. IFS2020 is a five-year plan introduced by the Irish government in 2017 to turn Ireland into a global location of choice for international financial services firms. One of the targets of the strategy is to increase the direct employment in the country's financial services sector from 35,000 people at the beginning of 2017 to 45,000 people at the end of 2019, said the minister, adding that a net increase of 9,000 people in the country's financial services sector has been achieved up to date of this year. | 
