Ireland is home to the world’s fourth-largest “shadow banking” industry, with $2.2 trillion of nonbanking financial assets based in funds, special-purpose vehicles and other little-understood entities in Dublin’s IFSC, according to a report published on Tuesday, the Irish Times reported. The figure equates to almost eight times the size of the Irish economy, as measured by gross domestic product.

Creditors of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide will have to wait years to find out whether they will recover all that they are owed, as the cost of liquidating the institution that was established to wind down the failed lenders has soared to €222.6 million, the Irish Times reported. The liquidators of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) said on Friday that they held €1.919 billion of net cash as of February 6th, the fourth anniversary of the Government’s decision to liquidate the company.

The financial crisis of 2007-2008 precipitated the biggest reversal in real earnings in Ireland since the second World War, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the Irish Times reported. The agency has collated data on the average earnings of industrial workers between 1938 and 2015, providing an insight into the shifting fortunes of workers here over the past 70 years. The recent financial crisis saw real weekly earnings drop by 4 per cent from €642 in 2008 to €616 in 2011.

Unions representing staff at Bus Éireann have said the current strike at the company will continue even if new talks aimed at finding a resolution to the dispute are convened. About 2,600 workers at the State-owned transport company will strike for a 12th consecutive day on Tuesday over plans by management at Bus Éireann to introduce new cost-saving measures and work practice reforms without the agreement of staff. The company argues the moves are essential if it is to stave off insolvency, the Irish Times reported.

The deficit at troubled Bus Éireann jumped sharply in the first two months of the year, rising 41 per cent to €2.2 million versus €1.5 million for the same period last year, new accounts show. The accounts reveal total revenues rose 3 per cent from €27.6 million to €28.4 million in the first eight weeks of the year due to a 14 per cent rise in the Public Service Obligation (PSO) subvention grant to €6.6 million, the Irish Times reported. Revenues from operations were flat at €21.7 million, with turnover from the company’s Expressway services down 5 per cent.

The number of owner-occupier mortgages at least three months in arrears fell 3.7 per cent during the final three months of 2016, marking the 13th consecutive quarterly decline, as the economy continued to improve and banks restructured their soured loans, the Irish Times reported. Some 54,269 home loans, or 7.4 per cent of a total of 736,894 Irish mortgages, valued at €100 billion, remained at least 90 days behind in repayments at the end of December, the Central Bank said on Thursday. The rate fell from 7.6 per cent from the previous quarter.

Trade unions have acknowledged that the eradication of inefficiencies at Bus Éireann may result in some staff earning less than at present, the Irish Times reported. In letters to the company on Wednesday, they said that any losses incurred by members as part of any new survival plan could be addressed as part of future discussions. However, unions have insisted that Bus Éireann should continue to provide “industry-leading” terms and conditions for its employees.

Britain's plans to leave the European Union threaten to cause Ireland all kinds of economic and security headaches. But a silver lining is expanding daily along the crane-filled banks of the River Liffey, a likely post-Brexit refuge for British banking operations, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. Dublin's financial district barely existed three decades ago but today stretches for nearly a mile on both banks of the river. More than 60 construction cranes are erecting future high-rise offices, hotels and apartments along the riverfront.

The resolution of non-performing loans (NPLs) by Irish banks needs to “regain momentum” while plans to give the Central Bank powers to cap mortgage interest rates could prevent lenders from generating “sustainable profits” and deter new entrants to the market, the European Commission has warned. In its latest unpublished post-bailout surveillance report on Ireland, seen by The Irish Times, the commission stated that while much work has been done by the banks to reduce their NPLs, the stock “remains high and shows signs of stickiness,” the Irish Times reported.

Some €700 million worth of non-performing mortgage loans (NPLs) across 1,560 accounts at Permanent TSB are “en route to closure” through a legal process, the bank’s chief executive Jeremy Masding warned yesterday, the Irish Times reported. In addition, about 4,000 mortgage account holders have yet to receive a determination from the bank on their untreated loan arrears. This includes a “hard core” of 1,500 account holders who have refused to engage with the lender.