Financial vehicle corporations (FVCs) are undertakings which are constituted pursuant to national or EU Law and whose principal activity meets both of the following criteria:
- to carry out securitisation transactions which are insulated from the risk of bankruptcy or any other default of the originator;
- to issue securities, securitisation fund units, other debt instruments and/or financial derivatives, and/or to legally or economically own assets underlying the issue of securities, securitisation fund units, other debt instruments and/or financial derivatives that are offered for sale to the public or sold on the basis of private placements.
There were 692 resident Irish FVCs as of end-2012. Statistics in relation to the activities of Financial Vehicle Corporations are published on the Central Bank website at http://www.centralbank.ie/polstats/stats/fvc/Pages/fvc.aspx.
The Central Bank does not collect information in relation to staff numbers at FVCs. Individual FVCs which are resident in Ireland file company returns with the Companies Registration Office (www.cro.ie). The information on staff numbers at FVCs is publicly available there.