Allied Irish Banks has written-off mortgage debts in a small number of cases where it has repossessed houses but is working on industry-wide long-term solutions to lessen the debt burden for struggling borrowers to help them stay in their homes, the Irish Times reported. Speaking to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, AIB executive chairman David Hodgkinson said he was consulting with the Department of Finance and the Central Bank on a wide range of solutions to assist distressed customers.

Anglo Irish Bank and Seán Quinn exchanged harsh criticisms ahead of a High Court decision today on whether to restrain Mr Quinn and certain family members from alleged asset-stripping in their overseas property group, the Irish Times reported. Mr Quinn claimed Anglo was pursuing a vendetta against him and his children and ignoring its obligations to the State by agreeing “the worst possible deal” on the restructuring of his group. He claimed the Minister for Finance was misled when he said last April that Quinn Group had been relieved of almost half of its debt in the restructuring.

The National Asset Management Agency plans to seek tenants for some of its 8,000 apartments with a view to selling them as blocks to investors to help shift properties stuck on its books, the Irish Times reported. Brendan McDonagh, chief executive of Nama, said that most of the apartments were in Dublin. The apartment rental scheme is aimed at investment companies that manage rented apartment blocks, particularly in the UK.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan is seeking a meeting with European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet as he attempts to avoid repaying a $1 billion (€711.4 million) debt owed by Anglo Irish Bank, the Irish Times reported. The Minister declared three months ago that the International Monetary Fund was supporting his effort to impose big losses on the holders of unguaranteed, unsecured senior bonds in Anglo. Such bonds are a form of loan raised by banks on international money markets to fund their own lending operations.

Developer Ray Grehan, whose property interests have been put into receivership by the National Asset Management Agency, has said there is no incentive for him to stay in Ireland and repay his debts to the State loans agency. Mr Grehan said Nama would continue to pursue him for the full €650 million in property loans he owes even though the agency has removed his ability to repay his debts. “There is no future in today’s market in Ireland but there may be a future in 10 years’ time,” he told the Irish Times.

Extensive debt forgiveness for struggling mortgages borrowers was "not a realistic option", Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has said, the Irish Times reported. Speaking to the Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform today, the Minister said resolutions "must be found on a case-by-case basis through open and meaningful engagement between the distressed borrower and the lender". He said there was no "magic bullet" solution to the problem.

Ireland’s unemployment rate nudged upwards for the third consecutive month in August, with the number of people on the seasonally adjusted Live Register increasing by 1,600 as summer jobs failed to materialise with their traditional frequency, the Irish Times reported. This pushed the standardised unemployment rate up by 0.1 per cent to 14.4 per cent last month. Overall, there were 469,713 people signing on the Live Register of jobseekers benefit and allowance claimants in August on an unadjusted basis, a rise of 2,790, or 0.6 per cent, over the year.

A new agency with legal powers to enforce debt restructuring agreements between banks and struggling home owners is being considered by the Government to deal with the rise in distressed mortgages. The Cabinet is awaiting a report from an expert group, which is due by the end of next month, before making any major decisions in this area. However, a high-level Government source told the Irish Times yesterday it would avoid any measures “on such a scale that people feel they can abandon their mortgages”.

Bank of Ireland said Wednesday it would impose a 60 per cent haircut on a group of UK junior bond investors through a revised debt buyback offer, the Irish Times reported. In July the bank withdrew its original offer to swap £75 million (€85.3 million) in perpetual unsecured junior bonds for cash or equities, citing administrative difficulties. The decision to terminate the offer came as the lender faced a legal action by a British investor in the bonds which were originally sold by Bristol and West Building Society, which Bank of Ireland acquired in 1997.

The most recently available figures from the Central Bank note almost 50,000 mortgages were in arrears for more than three months last March. The majority of them were over six months behind in their payments, the Irish Times reported. Even allowing for no increase in the rate of people falling into arrears, it is likely that by the end of September this number will have exceeded 60,000, and this doesn’t include those people who have agreed some form of restructuring with their lender. Meanwhile, property prices continue to fall, putting more homeowners into negative equity.