From Custom Quay to Wall Street

The International Financial Centre at Dublin's Custom House Docks may be many miles from Wall Street, but a new initiative is trying to bring the two closer together.

Next week, Dublin will host a conference aimed at bridging the gap between the

financial services markets on either side of the Atlantic.

To be held on Monday and Tuesday 26-27 March, the Finance Dublin conference will

be addressed by Paul Atkins, the US Securities and Exchange commissioner

responsible for external relations, and his European Commission counterpart,

Charlie McCreevy. The two commissioners will discuss their common aim to

achieve a 'friction-free' transatlantic market in financial services.

They'll be joined by industry heavyweights Merrill Lynch chairman Bob Wigley, JPMorgan Chase

International president Andrew Crockett, and James Leigh-Pemberton, chairman

of European investment banking and managing director of Credit Suisse

Securities (Europe).

"Our increasingly integrated transatlantic financial services markets have

opened up new opportunities for both Europeans and Americans and created

deep and sustained economic growth on both sides of the Atlantic,"

commissioner Atkins said in a statement about the conference.

The conference could help bring additional financial services jobs to Dublin.

Earlier this month, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Ireland's prime minister, devoted part of his St

Patrick's Day trip to the US to meeting with representatives of the most influential decision-makers in the financial services industry, including Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan.

Taoiseach Ahern is seeking to bolster Ireland's booming financial services sector

by attracting more operations here, in a bid to offset the recent loss of

thousands of manufacturing jobs.