The Central Bank is set to launch the largest ever investigation in Europe into the fees asset managers charge investors.
The probe, which comes amid widespread claims of overcharging within the fund management industry, is part of the bank's programme of themed-inspections for 2016.
The Central Bank said these inspections reflect a number of supervisory priorities for 2016 and anticipate areas of emerging risk.
Other areas the bank will inspect next year include outsourcing arrangements, director time commitments, information technology risk, hedging arrangements and market integrity
Reports say that the investigation in asset managers' fees will be a concern for asset management companies, where profit margins are already under pressure due to increasing demand from regulators and consumers for lower-cost products.
The Financial Times says the probe will initially focus on total expense ratios, which is a measure of the total cost of a fund to the investor.
It usually includes the manager's annual charge as well as the cost of other services paid for by the fund, such as fees paid to custodians and auditors.
"Consistent with the Central Bank's mandate of investor protection, market integrity and financial stability, we are embarking upon a large number of themed-inspections for 2016," commented the Central Bank's director of markets supervision, Gareth Murphy.
"Some of these inspections are a continuation of our work in 2015 where follow-up is warranted. An underlying theme for many of these areas is the need to strengthen firms' culture of regulatory compliance," he added.
