Ireland

Ireland’s Financial Regulator Matthew Elderfield told an Oireachtas committee today that there should be caution about imposing losses on holders of senior debt in insolvent Irish financial institutions, Finfacts reported. Elderfield said the Government has made its position clear on this matter and it does not intend to impose losses on senior bond holders. However, this does not rule out the possibility of some negotiations or a liquidity management exercise agreed by consent.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen insisted he did not know Anglo Irish Bank was facing insolvency the night the Government issued a blanket bank guarantee, despite attending an earlier meeting at which officials discussed the bank’s situation, The Irish Times reported. Mr Cowen told Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore “No, I didn’t” when asked if he knew about Anglo’s insolvency that night in September 2008 when the guarantee was issued. Bank of Ireland and AIB had emergency talks with the Government after Anglo told Bank of Ireland it was facing insolvency and sought a takeover.

A legal mechanism for imposing reduced terms on a secured creditor is theoretically possible but would present significant practical difficulties, the High Court has heard, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. In a hearing yesterday Mr Justice Frank Clarke continued the examinership of several companies in the McInerney home building group after concluding that one of three possibilities outlined in a report prepared by the examiner allowed for a realistic chance of the companies’ survival.

Ireland’s economic outlook worsened on Monday as the country’s central bank cut its growth forecast for this year, with gross domestic product now set to increase 0.2 per cent against previous forecasts of 0.8 per cent, the Financial Times reported. The slowing economy will compound the challenges the Fianna Fáil-led government faces in framing this year’s budget, which is critical to restoring investor confidence in Ireland’s fiscal consolidation plan.

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich may take legal action against the Government over its decision to make subordinated bondholders in Irish Nationwide (INBS) pay part of the bill for dealing with the building society’s huge property losses, The Irish Times reported. Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said that he expected bondholders in INBS and nationalised lender Anglo Irish Bank to make “a significant contribution” towards meeting the cost of a bill of up to €40 billion for cleaning up their years of reckless lending.

Ireland's cost of borrowing slid on bond markets Friday as investors took a positive view of the country's latest efforts to take control of Europe's worst deficit and a titanic bank-bailout effort, the Associated Press reported. The interest rates, or yields, on 10-year Irish bonds fell in early trade to 6.4 percent, a two-week low and 4.2 percentage points above the yields of benchmark German bonds. Earlier this week the Irish treasuries were at a euro-era high of 6.9 percent and 4.7 points above their German counterparts.

The government’s borrowing costs hit a record high again yesterday after two credit rating agencies warned that Irish State debt faces further downgrades, The Irish Times reported. The cost of State borrowing jumped as the yield or interest rate on 10-year Government bonds jumped by a quarter of a percentage point to 6.72 per cent. The bond yields are now trading at levels similar to Greece at the start of April – only a month before the Athens government sought international support.

Ireland's finance minister has warned the failure of Anglo Irish Bank would "bring down" the country, as regulators prepared to reveal Thursday the cost of bailing out the stricken lender, Agence France-Presse reported. Brian Lenihan also pledged to stand behind the bank which will reportedly cost the state some 30 billion euros (41 billion dollars) to rescue, in comments to the Financial Times newspaper. "Any Anglo failure would bring down the sovereign," the finance minister was quoted as saying in the FT.

A credit union has had to be given access to €4.3m from a bailout fund after a spike in bad debt provisions, it has been confirmed, The Irish Independent reported. Charleville Credit Union in Co Cork has been provided with the guarantee, with the money to be given to it if some of its loans are not recovered within two years. A deficit of €5.5m was recorded after the union was forced to put aside extra provisions for bad debts, due to the severe drop in the value of properties which loans were secured against.

Concerns over the financial stability of countries on the euro-zone's fringe mounted Monday as one of Ireland's largest banks had its credit rating cut and political tensions fueled doubts about Portugal's deficit-cutting plans, The Wall Street Journal reported. Moody's Investors Service downgraded the senior debt of Anglo Irish Bank Corp. by three notches to Baa3. Ireland's property-market collapse has crippled its banks, and the government has so far spent €33 billion ($44.5 billion), about one-fifth of its gross domestic product, rescuing them.