International law firm Walkers has appointed Stephen Hannigan as a partner in its Dublin finance and capital markets team, strengthening a practice that works alongside the accountants and auditors who administer Ireland's Section 110 securitisation vehicles on the same deals. Financial terms of the appointment, including remuneration, were not disclosed.

Walkers is an international legal and professional services firm headquartered in the Cayman Islands, practising the laws of six jurisdictions including Ireland from its Dublin office in the IFSC, with a finance and capital markets team ranked among the leading advisers in Ireland across securitisation, structured finance, private credit, debt capital markets and fund finance.

Stephen Hannigan advises international and domestic lenders, originators, investors, sponsors and trustees on banking, securitisation and financial markets transactions, with particular expertise in structured finance, debt capital markets and fund finance.

Every deal Hannigan's team advises on has an accounting dimension baked into its structure. Ireland's Section 110 regime was created in 1997 specifically to let IFSC legal and accounting firms compete for global securitisation administration business, and every qualifying vehicle must still file audited accounts each year to keep its tax-neutral status.

That ecosystem has grown substantially. Ireland held 4,456 active special purpose vehicles at the end of 2024 worth an estimated 1.142 trillion euros, with securitisation vehicles alone accounting for 37.5 per cent of that number and growing 26 per cent over the prior two years, each one requiring both legal structuring and ongoing audit and tax compliance work.

The timing adds a further layer. Budget 2026 is modernising Section 110 rules to expand flexibility in asset thresholds and consolidate overlapping deductibility tests, changes that will shape how lawyers like Hannigan and the accountants who audit these structures work together on new deals.

For Ireland's accountancy sector, a senior structured finance hire at a firm this active in the SPV market signals continued deal flow for the audit and tax compliance work that keeps Section 110 vehicles qualifying for their tax-neutral status.

Source: Irish Legal News / Wikipedia / Cafico International / Ocorian