The charge for bad loans at National Irish Bank will remain high for the remainder of the year before falling, the head of the Danish bank’s Republic of Ireland operations said, as the bank reported a pretax loss of €401 million for the first half of the year, the Irish Times reported. Loan impairments fell 7 per cent to €391 million for the first half, but NIB made a similar loss to the deficit posted for the first six months of 2011 as costs increased by 54 per cent to cover the closure of the bank’s 27 branches and laying off a further 100 staff.

The Central Bank official who argued for the appointment of administrators to Quinn Insurance in 2010 will attend the High Court today to help explain why the cost of covering the firm’s losses to the State’s Insurance Compensation Fund could rise to €1.65 billion, the Irish Times reported. Domhnall Cullinan, the head of the general insurance division at the Central Bank, will attend the court hearing for the purpose of assisting Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns in questioning why the call on the fund has risen significantly.

The creation of a new Nama controlled company to fast-track the acquisition of social housing has been welcomed by the Irish Council for Social Housing, the Irish Times reported. Nama Asset Residential Property Services Ltd, was incorporated last month to acquire vacant properties from Nama debtors for use by local authorities and housing associations. Fewer than 60 social houses have been made available through Nama since the agency was established to acquire development and land loans three years ago.

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.