Retired solicitor Brian O’Donnell and his wife, Dr Mary Patricia O’Donnell, have lost their Supreme Court appeal aimed at overturning a €71.5m summary judgment order granted against them four years ago. The couple had claimed the High Court judge who entered the judgment against them in favour of Bank of Ireland should not have dealt with their case. This was because the judge, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, now a member of the Court of Appeal, previously held shares in Bank of Ireland and had a business relationship with it, they claimed.

AIB is seeking summary judgment for €2.8 million and €3.4 million in separate but related cases against two businessmen arising from loans made for property investments, the Irish Times reported. The bank’s cases against Ivor O’Brien, Sheestown, Co Kilkenny, and Bryan Hanrahan, Raggetsland, Warrington, Co Kilkenny, were admitted to the Commercial Court by Mr Justice Brian McGovern on the application of AIB. There was no appearance for the two men.

Ireland’s biggest insurer RSA made a loss of €176.6 million in 2014 while also receiving a capital injection of €137 million from its UK parent, its latest filed accounts show, the Irish Times reported. These are a legacy of irregularities in its claims and finance functions and issues around bodily injury claims that arose in 2013 and resulted in three senior executives being suspended and litigation between the insurer and its former chief executive in Ireland, Philip Smith.

Legislation before Cabinet on Tuesday to reduce the term of bankruptcy to one year would be “the single most positive thing” the Government has done for people in debt, according to the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation (IMHO), the Irish Times reported. A Government source on Monday night said it was expected the Bill by Labour TD Willie Penrose would be “broadly accepted” by the Cabinet, although there will be “some minor amendments” by the Government on “mainly technical issues”. In the bill, the discharge term for bankruptcy is reduced from three years to one year.

A Connecticut court has rejected an attempt by Gayle Killilea to prevent her husband Seán Dunne’s Irish bankruptcy assignee from getting a ruling from the court to help him chase assets transferred by the bust developer to his wife, the Irish Times reported. Mr Dunne has also been declared bankrupt in the US and his court-appointed trustee there sought the ruling that would help him and Chris Lehane, who is overseeing his Irish bankruptcy, to pursue the assets.

The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) plans to sell two portfolios of property loans with a face value of €6 billion as it winds down its stock of risky commercial property debt, according to sources, the Irish Times reported. The loans will be split into two groups of €3 billion each and will be sold at a discount, said the sources. A spokesman for Nama declined to comment. The Government set up Nama in 2009 to take over €74 billion of commercial property loans held by Irish banks and sell them over as many as 10 years.

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm is in a bigger fight to stop his extradition to Ireland to face criminal charges, but he has just lost a smaller one: his bid to walk away from his debts. Eleven months after a US bankruptcy judge denied him a discharge from bankruptcy because he lied and fraudulently and knowingly failed to disclose €680,000 in cash transfers to his wife Lorraine, the 49-year-old Dubliner has lost his appeal against that withering ruling.

A meeting of creditors of Sir Anthony O’Reilly to see if a formal deal can be reached on the sale of his assets and the division of the proceeds is likely to follow Friday’s decision of the court in the Bahamas to declare him bankrupt. The judge in the case specifically mentioned that parties in the case could subsequently apply to the court to ratify such an agreement, the Irish Times reported.

AIB shareholders are to vote on the bank’s new capital re-organisation, which will see the value of their shareholding in the bank almost wiped out, at an egm on December 16th, the Irish Times reported. The bank announced its plans for an egm on Monday morning, as the first step in its plan to return to the markets next year and allow the Government to divest some of its 99.8 per cent stake in the bank.

AIB raised €750 million in a bond issue on Thursday as part of its plan to start repaying the bailout it received from the State, enjoying strong demand that bodes well for a planned stock market flotation next year, the Irish Times reported. The Government has pumped €21 billion into AIB since the 2007-2009 financial crisis, the biggest bailout given to any Irish bank still trading, and will recoup an initial €1.6 billion under its capital reorganisation.