Ireland

Ireland's banking recovery could yet be derailed by its international creditors, Reuters reported. The European Central Bank's refusal so far to give Dublin any relief on the 30-billion euro cost of bailing out Anglo Irish Bank is a major setback for government ambitions to exit an EU-IMF bailout this year and give the euro zone its first post-crisis success story. The failure to agree a deal on Anglo Irish also overshadows the country's banks.

A provisional trial date has been set for January next year in the case of three former executives of Anglo Irish Bank in connection with financial irregularities at the institution, the Irish Times reported. The bank’s former chairman Seán FitzPatrick, former finance director Willie McAteer and former managing director of the bank in Ireland Pat Whelan appeared before the Circuit Court in Dublin yesterday in front of Judge Mary Ellen Ring.

Euro zone finance ministers late last night called for an examination of whether the maturity of Ireland’s rescue loans from the EFSF temporary bailout fund should be extended, the Irish Times reported. The move came ahead of a meeting today of all 27 EU ministers at which Michael Noonan will ask for a similar examination of the maturity of loans form the European Financial Stability Mechanism, a separate fund run by the European Commission.

Investigators probing alleged fraud at the failed Anglo Irish Bank since early 2009 asked on Thursday for another three years to conclude their case and were told by a Dublin High Court judge to wrap it up in the next year, Reuters reported. The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) and the police are investigating events leading up to the collapse of scandal-hit Anglo Irish Bank and have so far brought charges forward in two of the five strands to their case.

Spanish and Irish funding costs continued to ease at debt auctions Thursday, with investors increasingly confident that both euro-zone countries may be over the worst of their financial problems, The Wall Street Journal reported. Spain sold its maximum targeted €4.5 billion ($5.98 billion) worth of bonds amid signs that it doesn't currently need financial support offered by the European Central Bank to meet its funding needs.

Ireland’s new Insolvency Service hopes to begin accepting applications from borrowers seeking debt relief in the second quarter of this year, its head Lorcan O’Connor said yesterday, the Irish Times reported. While there is a “large backlog” of potential cases “it may be a number of months down the road” before the bulk emerges, he told a Grant Thornton-organised seminar on the new personal insolvency legislation. Mr O’Connor said there would be a public register which would show who applied to the new service.

Households continue to save an increasing share of their incomes, new figures show. In the third quarter of last year Irish households saved 16 per cent of total disposable income, according to Central Statistics Office data published yesterday, the Irish Times reported. The new figures, which have been adjusted for seasonal factors by statisticians for the first time, show that the savings rate in the third quarter was the second highest since figures were first compiled in 2002. High savings rates are a feature of economies which have suffered collapsed property prices.

A pent-up demand for bankruptcies in Ireland is expected to clog up the personal insolvency service when it is finally launched at the end of March, the Independent reported. Sources involved in the process say the demand for bankruptcy settlements is already building and dealing with these will take precedence over the other areas of the personal insolvency regime. "We expect to be dealing with bankruptcy cases for the first number of months. There is huge demand in this area, a lot of people waiting for the service to be launched," a source told the Irish Independent.

European Commission president José Manuel Barroso has said he is supportive of Ireland finding a solution to the promissory notes issue, echoing comments by European Council president Herman Van Rompuy yesterday. In an interview with The Irish Times on the eve of today’s European Commission visit to Dublin, Mr Barroso said the commission was generally in favour of a deal, though he declined to comment on specific proposals, stressing it was in the remit of the European Central Bank.

The National Pension Fund is to invest in small businesses, announcing three new funds which will provide equity, credit and restructuring investment to Irish SMEs, the Irish Times reported. The NPRF will invest up to €500 million across new the funds which include an SME equity fund, an SME credit fund and an SME turnaround fund. The turnaround fund will invest in underperforming businesses which are at or close to the point of insolvency but have the potential for financial and operational restructuring, while the credit fund will lend to larger SMEs and mid-size corporates.