The taxpayer will step in to cover half of a private pension fund if both the pension fund and the employer become insolvent, the Irish Examiner reported. New pensions rules being brought forward by the government will see the State cover half of the deficit in a pension fund if the employer is closing down. The rules are an attempt to avoid a repeat of the Waterford Crystal case where workers had to go to the European Court of Justice to secure their pensions.

The special liquidators of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation yesterday offered the final tranche of loans for sale to interested parties. The loans form part of Project Stone, a €9.3 billion portfolio of loans that has been put up for sale, the Irish Times reported. These are believed to include borrowings held by successful businessman Denis O’Brien, and financier Niall McFadden, along with loans connected with the Blackrock Clinic.

Ireland and Spain said Thursday they could stand on their own feet once their bailout programs end in the coming months, marking significant steps as the euro zone battles to exit a four-year debt crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported. The currency union's finance ministers hailed the decisions as signs that their strategy of budget cuts, economic overhauls and long-term rescue loans was working.

KBC Bank Ireland chief executive John Reynolds is to step down after almost 30 years with the company, the Irish Times reported. The Belgian lender also announced it would need to make a provision of up to €775 million in the fourth quarter for potentially lost loans and mortgages in its Irish loan book. This was as a result of moving restructured mortgages from a non-impaired status to an impaired status, it said. In a statement this morning, the bank said Mr Reynolds, who has been chief executive of the company for four years, is leaving to pursue other interests.

The National Asset Management Agency has put a London-based property company controlled by former Howard Holdings executives into receivership, according to court records in London, the Irish Times reported. The company, Wandle Holdings – which has 30 outstanding Anglo Irish Bank mortgages – is registered to an address at Hambalt Road, Lambeth in London, according to Companies House files. The administrative receiver to the company, Belfast-based John Hansen, was appointed on October 17th, though he will have to spend the next month or so investigating the company’s affairs.

The Central Bank believes it is powerless to sanction the directors and managers of Newbridge Credit Union (NCU) for a litany of alleged rules breaches that were outlined by the regulator in court documents last week, the Irish Times reported. NCU got a €54 million taxpayer bailout over the weekend to facilitate a High Court-sanctioned takeover of the credit union by Permanent TSB. The regulator only gained the power to sanction credit union directors for regulatory breaches from August 1st this year, under the Credit Union and Co-operation with Overseas Regulators Act.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said the Government will decide before the end of the bailout in mid-December whether it will seek a special credit line to guard against renewed turmoil after the rescue programme, the Irish Times reported. Mr Noonan was speaking alongside Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin this morning as the EU-IMF said Ireland had successfully executed all obligations on it under the three-year bailout, a key step in the process of leaving the programme next month.

Lawyers for State-owned Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo Irish Bank, pleaded for protection from a US bankruptcy court saying that the liquidated bank was a “very unique” case, the Irish Times reported. The Delaware bankruptcy court heard the bank’s case for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection, guarding about €1 billion of US assets and blocking legal actions against it, at a hearing yesterday.

The management team at Irish retailer Arnotts is believed to have secured a backer willing to bid for the retailer’s loans with Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, which are up for sale, the Irish Times reported. It is unclear who the backer is but informed sources said it was a party “knowledgeable of retail”. Ulster Bank, which jointly controls Arnotts with IBRC, is understood to be supportive of this bid, although this could not be confirmed with the British lender last night.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan will meet International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials in Washington this evening amid uncertainty over whether the Government will seek a precautionary credit line when it leaves the bailout programme in December, the Irish Times reported. With only seven weeks to go before Ireland’s official exit from the EU-IMF bailout, there is still no consensus in the troika or among European leaders about what sort of backstop might be provided to cushion Ireland’s return to the markets.