Getting included in an international stock market index is now of crucial importance to a public company to get itself noticed by international fund managers who increasingly look across a sector to find their investment opportunities.

Big Irish stocks like the banks and CRH have done well from inclusion in some of the major stock indices following the introduction of the euro, and most of the heavy trading in bank shares in particular in recent weeks has involved European and US institutions building up positions to reflect the indices.

Now FTSE International, which operates the various Footsie indices, is planning a world index that will include only the bluest of blue-chips with only companies with a market capitalisation of at least $1 billion (€920 million) deemed acceptable. FTSE, it seems, wants to take the initiative before rivals like Dow Jones make a similar move.

But market capitalisation alone will not be the sole criterion for inclusion in the proposed FTSE world index, aspirant members of the index will also have to have a global business - a condition that might militate against the likes of Bank of Ireland, with its concentration in Ireland and Britain. Other Irish members of the billion-euro club such as AIB, CRH, Kerry and Smurfit could legitimately claim to have a global business. But the operations of soon-to-merge Irish Life & Permanent and soon-to-float Telecom Eireann are anything but global.