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Ireland has become one of the main sources of finance for Russian based firms. The purpose of this paper is to quantify and analyse these flows to examine governance and regulatory issues, in particular the possible effect of sanctions.

The paper is based on detailed searches of publicly available filings in Company House, Ireland to identify Russian connected conduits. Data was extracted from available accounts and prospectuses for 106 conduits operating in Ireland for some or all of the period 2005-2017.

The paper shows gross flows from Irish based conduits to Russian firms amounted to €118bn for 2005-2017; flows may be partly explained by round tripping; sanctions have also affected flows; flows are facilitated by close linkages with professional networks both within Ireland, and other offshore financial centres, especially London; The conduits examined have no employees and are mostly owned by a charitable trust or trust. They have become a major part of a largely unregulated shadow banking system.

This paper used searches of publicly available company filings to create a unique database of individual firms. Data on the use of financial centres by individual firms is hard to obtain and the results of this study may be indicative of the use and nature of conduits in other financial centres which form part of the shadow banking sector.

The purpose of this paper is to study financial vehicle corporations (FVCs) and other special purpose vehicles (SPVs) in Ireland.

The paper is based on a database of FVCs that are a central part of the shadow banking sector in Ireland. The database is derived from a European Central Bank (ECB) list of securities and from filings in Company Registration Office, Dublin.

Tax concessions are very valuable and has resulted in zero or close-to-zero effective tax rates. Although described as “bankruptcy remote”, FVCs/ SPVs in Ireland are associated with several banks that failed. Central Bank data are inconsistent with revenue data and have resulted in regulatory gaps. The main economic benefit to Ireland consists of payments to certain service providers.

A complete population of FVCs/SPVs has not been used. Ownership of FVCs/SPVs has not been identified with consequent implications for identifying risk to the sponsoring firm or guarantor.

The study indicates data deficiencies in Central Bank data, with consequent implications for regulation and measuring the size of the shadow banking sector, and failure of FVCs/SPVs described as bankruptcy remote.

The shadow banking sector has been a key source of instability and risk transference in the recent past. Research and understanding is vital to prevent a future occurrence.

There are no publicly available databases of individual FVCs/SPVs in Ireland. Hence, research on granular data is limited. The study develops a database derived from lists of securities published by the ECB. The study also relies on a database derived from company house records.