Ireland

Next Monday sees the new insolvency service open for business. The body has already had 4,500 inquiries and its boss, Lorcan O’Connor, expects thousands of people to avail of its services, the Irish Times reported in a commentary. Overborrowed and insolvent individuals will now have a couple of ways out of their problems other than fully fledged bankruptcy. The insolvency service is only part of the Government/troika strategy for dealing with overindebtedness.

Permanent TSB bank, which is more than 99 per cent owned by the State, booked a €429 million impairment charge on its non-performing mortgage loans in the first half of this year, the Irish Times reported. This was €5 million less than in the same period of 2012 but highlights the scale of the challenge still facing the bank as it seeks to tackle its mortgage arrears. Of this figure, €236 million of the impairment related to home loans in the Republic and €102 million to buy-to-let investment properties.

Five years after a huge property crash devastated the Irish economy, prices are finally stabilising, but a booming urban market where supply is scarce and competition fierce is raising concerns about a new bubble in the capital, Reuters reported. House prices quadrupled on a decade of easy credit during the boom years that earned Ireland the sobriquet Celtic Tiger, then fell by more than half from 2007, leading the country into an EU/IMF bailout, a costly bank rescue and leaving almost one in five homeowners behind on their mortgage payments.

Ireland’s 7,400 pubs have combined debts of more than €2 billion and are continuing to feel the pinch from the recession, according to a report on the sector by AIB in conjunction with the Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) and the Vintner’s Federation of Ireland (VFI), the Irish Times reported. That equates to €270,000 per pub and excludes lending for other purposes that might be secured on a bar. According to the report, 53 per cent of respondents said they had a good relationship with their bank while 18 per cent said it was “poor”.

The liquidation vehicle for Ireland's failed Anglo Irish Bank has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, it said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation's (IBRC) liquidators said they filed an application under Chapter 15 of the U.S. bankruptcy code in the district of Delaware on Monday. Chapter 15 grants a foreign company protection from creditors looking to seize its assets in the country. "These assets form part of the liquidation process currently underway," the liquidators said in a statement.

The liquidation vehicle for Ireland's failed Anglo Irish Bank has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, it said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation's (IBRC) liquidators said they filed an application under Chapter 15 of the U.S. bankruptcy code in the district of Delaware on Monday. Chapter 15 grants a foreign company protection from creditors looking to seize its assets in the country. "These assets form part of the liquidation process currently underway," the liquidators said in a statement.

The number of homeowners unable to meet their mortgage repayments is continuing to rise despite banks being ordered to deal with the crisis, the Irish Times reported. Figures published by the Central Bank yesterday showed homeowners are now a staggering €2 billion behind on their payments, with almost 30,000 mortgages two years in arrears, and close to 100,000 more than three months in arrears.

Dublin-based Depfa Bank is to be sold off by its Munich-based parent, Hypo Real Estate, five years after both were rescued from collapse by a German state-backed guarantee. Depfa, based in the IFSC, plays no active role in the HRE group under the terms of a 2008 rescue plan that resulted in the property group’s nationalisation in 2009. A well-placed source confirmed to the Irish Times that a plan would be announced shortly to hive off the Irish institution in an auction, six years after it was bought by HRE.

Ireland is set to end its three-year reliance on international aid at the end of this year, but that achievement will be of little immediate benefit to many Irish people trapped with home loans they will likely never be able to repay, The Wall Street Journal reported. The painful legacy of the property market and banking collapse that forced Ireland to seek a €67.5 billion ($90 billion) bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund has left house prices at nearly half their boom-time levels of 2007, according to official data published this week.

Special liquidators for the IBRC have written to debtors saying they have begun assessing the market for sale of the former Anglo Irish Bank’s loans, which include debts of €250 million owed by property investor Paddy McKillen, the Irish Times reported. The move has stepped up the battle for ownership rights over London’s most prestigious set of hotel properties up a notch, with twin billionaire brothers David and Frederick Barclay saying there are eager to buy Mr McKillen’s debts.