Mary-Elizabeth McMunn: Outcomes and opportunities - responding to challenge and change

Remarks by Ms Mary-Elizabeth McMunn, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, at the Irish Funds Annual Global Funds Conference, Dublin, 21 May 2025.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Good morning.  Thank you to Irish Funds for the invitation to address their Annual Global Funds Conference today.

The theme of this year's conference - 'Towards 2030: Acceleration, Transformation & Innovation' - is a fitting one. 

Given the volatility of global events over the last few weeks, it is more important than ever that we continue to look to future.  Both to understand and be able to take advantage of potential opportunities – particularly with regard to transformation and innovation – but also to be prepared for whatever the future may hold.  

But before I look to the future, I will spend a few moments looking back – and taking stock of recent and potentially seismic global developments. 

Shifting geo-political plates

The last few months and indeed weeks have seen a sudden shift in geo-economic fragmentation both in terms of an accelerated pace and scale. 

While a return to more protectionist policies had been forecast for some time – and specific events such as COVID-19 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine provided concrete examples of trade fragmentation and heightened geopolitical tensions – the recent and potentially significant fracturing of trading relations has come about quite suddenly.