Ireland

More than a fifth of Lloyds Banking Group’s Irish residential mortgage book is impaired or unlikely to be repaid in full, it said today, but its impairment charges fell, the Irish Times reported. In a statement Tuesday, the bank said 67 per cent of all its loans in Ireland were classified as impaired at the end of the first quarter. But the lender's Irish impairment charge fell to £526 million (€643 million) from £1.144 billion a year earlier, and £711 million or the last quarter of 2011, it said.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has said he is to establish a Restructuring Board in the coming weeks to implement the recommendations of a report on the credit union movement, the Irish Times reported. The report by the Commission on Credit Unions, published last week, said the restructuring of credit unions will require significant funding, including State funding. The amount required will not be known until the restructuring process gets under way, according to the report.

Ireland's finance minister warned on Sunday that a rejection of Europe's new fiscal treaty in an Irish referendum next month would not only block access to Europe's new permanent bailout fund, but would also put fresh IMF funds out of reach, Reuters reported. According to the wording of the treaty, a "No" vote would cut Ireland off from additional funding from the European Stability Mechanism should it - as is likely - need additional non-market funding when its 85 billion euro EU/IMF bailout ends next year.

A major piece of legislation aimed at tackling the State’s personal debt crisis is facing delays of at least two months, the Irish Times has learned. A draft version of the proposed personal insolvency legislation was published in January, with the Minister for Justice Alan Shatter describing it as the “most radical reform of insolvency law since the foundation of the State”. He said the Bill would be finalised and ready by the end of April and he expressed the hope it would become law in the autumn.

Home owners with properties in negative equity are being offered new mortgages that allow them to move home, the Irish Times reported. Bank of Ireland this morning said it would offer negative equity mortgages that would allow customers trade up or down, carrying an amount of negative equity to the mortgage for the new property. The lender joins Ulster Bank in offering such deals. The move has been cautiously welcomed, but experts said there were some considerations that should be taken into account.

The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) postponed doling out billions in cash to the banks in March so the money could be used for an obtuse scheme to avoid making a €3.1bn payment to the former Anglo Irish Bank, it emerged last night, The Independent reported. Details of the "intended" Nama payments were revealed to the Dail by Finance Minister Michael Noonan, who also hinted that the toxic loans agency would make the multi-billion payment to the banks in May. Nama issued more than €30bn worth of 'Nama bonds' to banks when it bought their bad loans over 2010 and 2011.

The credit union movement should be subjected to a four year restructuring process, the Commission on Credit Unions recommended in a report published Wednesday, the Irish Times reported. A new Restructuring Board should be established to facilitate the process but it would not be the board’s function to “shepherd” individual credit unions that were small or in difficulty, into “an arranged marriage” with other credit unions, commission chairman Prof Donal McKillop told a press conference.

The former Anglo Irish Bank may ask the Supreme Court later this week for a speedy hearing of its proposed appeal against a significant ruling permitting bankrupt businessman Seán Quinn’s family to make claims of illegal conduct by the bank in their action aimed at avoiding liability for €2.34 billion loans to companies in the Quinn Group, the Irish Times reported. The bank may also seek a stay on the family’s proceedings pending the outcome of any Supreme Court appeal.

A senior European Central Bank member has played down the prospect of the debt burden arising from the State’s banking crisis being eased, saying that such a move would undermine confidence in the country, the Irish Times reported. Speaking in Dublin today, Jorge Asmussen said that “any desire to offload this debt could have dire consequences”. He added that seeking to reduce the debt would signal that the current debt level was not sustainable.

As Ireland trudges through the pain of economic recovery, restaurant owners across the country have been cutting prices to sustain a flow of customers and avoid going out of business, The Wall Street Journal reported. The result is sector-specific deflation that has brought big drops in revenue not only for Irish restaurant owners but also for hotel proprietors, retailers and most other consumer-linked businesses. The situation is a peril of the euro.