Ireland

The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation is to ask the courts in Northern Ireland to overturn the bankruptcy of businessman Seán Quinn, the Irish Times reported. The bankruptcy was secured last Friday with no notice to the bank, which initiated proceedings nine days earlier for summary judgment orders for more than €2 billion against Mr Quinn. IBRC, formerly Anglo Irish Bank, is pressing ahead with its action here and Mr Justice Peter Kelly said yesterday it was “clearly at issue” whether the bankruptcy was properly obtained or, as the bank alleged, contrived to frustrate its case.

Sean Quinn, once one of Ireland's richest business leaders, voluntarily applied for bankruptcy in the Belfast High Court Friday, marking one of the most spectacular business failures amid the country's property and banking crash, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. But Dublin-based Anglo Irish Bank Corp.---the nationalized lender now renamed the Irish Bank Resolution Corp.---said it will question the right of Quinn, its largest debtor, to have applied for bankruptcy in Northern Ireland because he is resident in the Irish republic.

The three major banks in the State rebuffed the Government’s efforts to get them to lower interest rates during a “tense” and “frosty” meeting yesterday with the Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the Coalition’s most senior Ministers, the Irish Times reported. Senior executives from Bank of Ireland, AIB and Ulster Bank faced down pressure from the Government to pass on the recent reduction in the European Central Bank’s interest rates to variable rate mortgage customers.

The government is seeking an overall reduction of €15 billion to €20 billion in its burden of debt, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has said, the Irish Times reported. In an address to the Institute of International and European Affairs in Dublin on “Ireland in Europe”, the Minister said a medium-term process was in place with the European Commission and the European Central Bank on the issue. “We want the overall burden of debt to be reduced and this is the argument we will use when we are talking about the promissory note in Anglo Irish Bank,” he said.

National Irish Bank (NIB) has reported a €632 million impairment charge for the first nine months, up from a €504 million charge for the year-earlier period on the back of unexpectedly high loan losses, the Irish Times reported. NIB’s Danish parent bank Danske said pre-tax loss widened to €600 million in the period from a €468 million loss a year ago. The bank said its operating profits fell by 11 per cent to €32 million from €36 million. NIB's chief executive Andrew Healy said the bank hopes "to see a downward trajectory" on its impairment charges related to the property crash.

Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), formerly known as Anglo Irish Bank, will repay the $1 billion (€718 million) due to senior unguaranteed bondholders next week using emergency loans from the Central Bank, the proceeds of the sale of its US loans and loans maturing at the bank, the Irish Times reported. The bank no longer holds customer deposits to fund the repayment so will have to rely on further drawings under the Central Bank’s exceptional liquidity assistance (ELA) facility to repay the debt.

NAMA has revealed it would be prepared to sell a small number of assets below what it paid for them -- in a "tactical" attempt to get the property market moving, Independent.ie reported. However, the agency said reports that it would accept discounts of 10pc were "factually incorrect". The agency was responding to a suggestion on a NAMA-related blog that it was prepared to live with a 10pc drop on the prices it paid banks for the assets. The comments about a 10pc markdown were attributed to a senior NAMA executive, John Mulcahy.

Most of the money held in trust for two customers at a separate firm run by investment manager Harry Cassidy was used to meet property debts of his failed investment firm, Custom House Capital, the Irish Times reported. According to the report by two Central Bank inspectors, Mr Cassidy, the chief executive of CHC, said he managed “€7 million or €8 million” in client trusts through a firm called ARF Management.

The High Court has appointed a liquidator to the Dublin investment firm Custom House Capital after Central Bank inspectors found “systemic and deliberate misuse” of more than €56 million of client funds, the Irish Times reported. A 198-page report by two inspectors into the company described “a sort of Irish Ponzi scheme”, Mr Justice Gerard Hogan said. The judge directed the report to be referred to the Garda, Minister for Justice, Director of Public Prosecutions, Revenue Commissioners and the Director of Corporate Enforcement.

High-profile house builder Manor Park Homes is in receivership with debts of €170 million after the company’s directors told its bank that the business could not repay the money, the Irish Times reported. Businessman Joe Moran and his family own Manor Park, which made headlines eight years ago when it bought former taoiseach Charles Haughey’s estate in Kinsealy, Co Dublin, for €45 million.