Ireland

The Central Bank has sold a further €500 million of the boom-time debts racked up by the former Anglo Irish Bank. The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has announced it acquired the 2043 floating-rate bonds from the Central Bank and cancelled them, the Irish Times reported. The transaction is part of the scheme to eliminate the old Anglo promissory notes that were used to bail out the floundering institution at the height of the last financial crisis. The promissory notes were replaced with government debt held by the Central Bank.

Irish households remain the fourth most indebted in the EU, according to new figures from the Central Bank, the Irish Times reported. The quarterly financial accounts show household debt was largely unchanged at €148.4 billion during the second quarter of 2016. This represented a decline of less than €0.2 billion, and was the lowest quarterly fall in household debt since the fourth quarter of 2008, when households first began to reduce debt. The Central Bank said household debt as a proportion of disposable income fell over the quarter from 151.3 per cent to 150.4 per cent.

The Irish government on Wednesday filed an appeal seeking to stop efforts by European authorities to force Apple to pay the country $14.3 billion to cover what antitrust officials say are unpaid taxes, the International New York Times reported. Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s competition chief, ordered Apple in August to pay the amount, alleging the company had received preferential tax rulings from the Irish government that gave Apple an unfair advantage over rivals. Both Ireland and Apple deny any wrongdoing.

A squeeze in the number of buy-to-let properties available in the Irish property market is likely to happen as many interest-only arrangements end and borrowers become liable for substantially higher repayments, the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers (IPAV) has warned. In a submission to the Department of Housing, the group’s chief executive, Pat Davitt, said many investors are now reaching the end of their 10-year interest-only period and will become liable for capital repayments in addition to interest, the Irish Times reported.

The fist net outflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) from Ireland since 2011 has been linked to the restructuring of balance sheets amid the current clampdown on multinational tax avoidance. The OECD’s latest analysis of FDI trends and developments shows the flow of foreign investment into Ireland fell to minus $0.4 billion in the first half of 2016, driven by a $19 billion outflow in the second quarter.

The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) expects to reduce its direct operating costs by €36 million in 2017 as it continues to wind down its activities. The agency has budgeted €72 million for these costs for next year compared with €108 million for 2016, a reduction of 33 per cent, the Irish Times reported. It also expects the number of debtor connections to have reduced to 150 or fewer by the end of this year from about 800 in 2010 when loans began transferring to it from domestic banks.

Permanent TSB has completed the last stage of its €8.4 billion deleveraging plan with the sale of the balance of its UK mortgage book to US-based Cerberus Capital Management, the Irish Times reported. The deal will involve a 15 per cent haircut on the £2.29 billion face value of the Capital Home Loans portfolio, which comprises mostly buy-to-let loans. PTSB chief executive Jeremy Masding described the transaction as a “milestone” deal, as it completes the final element of the restructuring plan agreed with the European Commission as part of its State aid.

The State’s banks are putting plans in place for the sale of billions of euro of bonds where investors can suffer losses during a crisis, as European authorities set targets for euro area lenders in the coming weeks, the Irish Times reported. AIB subsidiary EBS has acknowledged in a bond prospectus that it and the parent group may have to sell a “significant amount” of such notes, to be calculated as a percentage of banks’ total liabilities, under the incoming rules. The bank made the comments under a list of risks facing the group in the document.

The Supreme Court will give judgment at a later date on the Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland’s (MIBI) appeal against decisions it is potentially liable for claims brought against collapsed insurer Setanta, the Irish Times reported. The appeal concluded on Tuesday before a seven-judge court presided over by the Chief Justice, Ms Justice Susan Denham, who said the court was reserving judgment. The court did not specify a date for judgment but it is expected to take some weeks.

A seven-judge Supreme Court is hearing the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland’s appeal against decisions that it is potentially liable for claims brought against collapsed insurer Setanta, the Irish Times reported. Because all motor insurers operating in Ireland must be members of the MIBI, the decisions by the High Court and Court of Appeal effectively mean that all insurers entering the Irish market must undertake an “enormous potential liability”, Paul Gallagher SC, for the MIBI, said.