IDA Ireland must have been happy with the glowing review of the IFSC in this week's Economist magazine.

It reports how the marketing campaign for the centre developed over the years and eventually notched up successes through attracting back-office administration and fund management operations.

It may be quite different from the floors of dealers envisaged when the centre was set up, the Economist writes, but it is a thriving niche of the market.

"Dublin - The Back Office of Europe" may not be a very alluring title, but the magazine warns that many other small financial centres "may have no future at all".

Brendan Logue of IDA Ireland is refreshingly honest about how the marketing of the centre changed over the years. "We engaged in dynamic research," he says. "Which is another way of saying we made it up as we went along."