Ireland

The president of the High Court has described as “truly shocking” the revelation that €1.65 billion may be required from the Insurance Compensation Fund to meet claims and costs arising from the administration of Quinn Insurance, the Irish Times reported. Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns has sought the “clearest of explanations” for this information and has directed he be given it next week. It would be helpful if somebody from the Central Bank, which is responsible for regulating the insurance industry, also attended court then, he added.

Ireland's High Court has rejected an attempt by property developer Treasury Holdings to overturn a state-run agency's appointment of receivers in relation to 35 properties and debts of 900 million euros ($1.1 billion), Reuters reported. The court on Tuesday dismissed Treasury's claims on the grounds that it entered into an agreement with the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) in January, which stated that it would not object to the appointment of receivers. Treasury said that it will mount an appeal against the decision. It has 21 days to lodge its appeal with the Supreme Court.

The Irish government returned to the bond markets Thursday after an enforced absence of almost two years, marking an important step in its rehabilitation after its 2010 bailout and providing a rare hint of hope for the euro zone, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Irish government aims to finance itself entirely from the bond markets from 2014, after the last of its bailout loans from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund are disbursed next year.

The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) made a net profit of €247 million in 2011 after taking an impairment charge of €1.27 billion to cover bad loans, the Irish Times reported. Publishing its second annual report Wednesday, the agency said it made an operating profit, before loan impairment charges, of €1.28 billion last year, compared €305 million in 2010. As property prices continue to fall, the agency said last year’s impairment charge of €1.27 billion brought the total level of impairment on the agency’s loans to €2.75 billion, equivalent to over 9 per cent.

Anglo Irish Bank Corp. had ambitions from the late 1990s to be the largest commercial property lender in Ireland. But the bank was built on foundations of sand, The Wall Street Journal reported. It tapped and in turn helped fuel Ireland's property bubble. Loans to customers that amounted to €13.3 billion ($16.12 billion) in 2002 had ballooned more than five-fold to reach €73.1 billion when the Irish government nationalized the lender in early 2009. Some experts had questioned the lender's business plan, but regulators failed to take any concrete action.

Former chairman and chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank Seán FitzPatrick appeared in court Tuesday in connection with alleged financial irregularities at the bank, the Irish Times reported. The court heard Mr FitzPatrick was arrested by arrangement at Dublin Airport at about 5.35am by gardaí attached to the Office of the Director Corporate Enforcement and taken to the Bridewell Garda station. He is understood to have been returning to Ireland on a flight from the US at the time of his arrest.

Authorities in Ireland arrested and indicted two former executives of Anglo Irish Bank Corp. for allegedly encouraging a huge share-support plan, marking the first charges to be brought in an investigation of the lender that was central to the country's banking crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Brendan Howlin, minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, yesterday announced the Government’s plans for an additional €2.25bn investment in job-rich public infrastructure projects in Ireland, Finfacts reported. He said the projects selected a number of sectors and will be spread throughout the country. This will help to maximise the benefits to communities and to meet clearly identified local needs. The 13,000 jobs appear to be a back of an envelope job.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has confirmed that 20 Irish developers managed by the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) have declared themselves bankrupt in Britain, the Irish Times reported. Mr Noonan said Nama was “generally neutral” on bankruptcy location and did not believe debtors declaring bankruptcy outside the Republic would affect its debt recovery position. “Nama does not see the success of developers declaring bankruptcy in the UK rather than Ireland as significantly prejudicing its potential recoveries from the bankruptees,” he said.

The former Anglo Irish Bank has failed in its bid to get court orders requiring the family of bankrupt businessman Seán Quinn to provide security for the cost of discovering documents as part of the family’s legal challenge aimed at avoiding liability for loans of some €2.34 billion, the Irish Times reported. The bank, now Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), had argued the costs of making the “vast” discovery sought by the family could be as high as €1 million, while the costs of discovery to which the bank had agreed would be about €600,000.