Dublin has put Bermuda and other offshore centres to shame by taking the crown for the fastest growing location for international financial services.

A survey of more than 6,800 offshore funds carried out by international rating agency Standard & Poor's Micropal uncovered the bad news for Bermuda.

It revealed that assets flowing into Dublin's international financial services centre now exceeded $100 billion, more than tripling in three years.

Dublin managed to outperform Jersey for the first time as a home for domiciled international funds. Assets domiciled in Dublin rose 42 percent from 1996 to 1997 and by a staggering 60 percent in 1998.

But the report's author Robert Milroy told an Irish newspaper that each of the jurisdictions in Standard & Poor's Micropal Guide to Offshore Investment Funds offered its own unique advantages to private asset management groups.

Standard & Poor's concluded that none of the more exotic centres like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands were a serious contender in the rate-of-growth race.

"No others match Dublin for growth,'' the survey found. "Last year the number of funds and assets under management in Dublin showed a superior growth of 46 percent and 60 percent respectively when compared with other offshore jurisdictions.'' In contrast centres like Guernsey and Bermuda experienced reduced assets despite demonstrating an increase in the number of funds. The survey prompts the question of whether the anti-tax-haven probes by bodies including the OECD have affected Bermuda's popularity as an international financial centre.

Cheery Dublin chiefs told the Irish Independent newspaper that Dublin was "winning the battle for the location of billions of dollars because of the low tax rates and the relatively inexpensive cost of operating'' there.

They pointed to a combination of attractive features including the low corporation tax rate, salary levels, ease of access and EU membership.

Dublin is the only international centre besides Luxembourg which is a domicile for UCITS which can be marketed in the European Union.

"We are also beginning to see the benefits of having the top 40 service providers in the world,'' one exec told the Independent.

"When people like Citibank, Chase and Bankers Trust are marketing your location among their clients, then the business will grow.'' More than 6,500 people are employed in Dublin's international financial services sector and that figure is increasing by 500 workers each year.