Quinn Insurance administrators reported today that the company lost a total of €706m 2009, mainly related to operating losses in its UK market and writedowns in the value of some assets, Finfacts reported. The joint administrators, Michael McAteer and Paul McCann, said losses in 2010 were contained and the company will post a loss of €160m which again is related to UK business written prior to their appointment. About €600m will be required from the bailout insurance fund.

Relations between The National Asset Management Agency and developers Ray and Danny Grehan broke down last week after the agency asked them to sign up to about 35 legal documents improving security on debts of about €650 million as a condition of the agency funding the completion of a hotel extension in London, the Irish Times reported. The agency asked Ray Grehan to agree to renewed personal guarantees and additional legal charges over personal assets, including his family home, and the properties owned by his company, Glenkerrin, last week.

The European Commission did not do enough to criticise the unsustainable growth of the Irish economy during the boom and the government here did not use the tools that could have slowed bank lending, according to Klaus Regling, the boss of the EU’s new bailout fund, the Irish Times reported. Mr Regling is the first chief executive of the European Financial Stabilisation Fund (EFSF), which was set up in mid-2010 to provide funds to bail out out euro area countries. Ireland became the first country to be provided with funds by the EFSF.

The Department of Finance has advertised for people interested in being nominated or appointed to the boards of banks as part of the clear-out process, the Irish Times reported. The department is creating a pool of potential directors after Minister for Finance Michael Noonan announced plans last week to clear out the boards of the banks of the directors who were in place before the banking crisis. This process “should ensure a high-calibre field from which directors may be chosen and makes the process more open and transparent”, the department said.

The lenders to the Quinn Group will receive interest payments of about €100 million a year under the restructuring deal where they have taken control of the business from Seán Quinn with Anglo Irish Bank, the Irish Times reported. Banks and bondholders are owed €1.28 billion by the group, while State-owned Anglo is owed €2.88 billion by Quinn and his family.

Seán Quinn and his family will no longer have a role in the management or ownership of the Quinn Group after Anglo Irish Bank appointed a share receiver to take control of the family’s stake in the business, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. Anglo Irish Bank is owed €2.8 billion by Seán Quinn and his family, while other lenders to the Quinn Group are owed almost €1.3 billion. Anglo Irish Bank chief executive Mike Aynsley said that the bank was owed an enormous amount of money by the Quinn family, of which there was little prospect of recovery.

Lower credit standards, the introduction of high-risk products and access to credit on international money markets contributed to the Irish banking crisis, a new report found today, the Irish Times reported. The Nyberg report says while international developments helped trigger the crisis in Ireland, they did not cause it, and its origins were the result of "domestic Irish decisions and actions, some of which were made more profitable or possible by international developments".

Seán Quinn has blamed over-reliance on the banks and their economic predictions for the group’s problems, the Irish Times reported. Mr Quinn yesterday issued his first statement since he lost control of his manufacturing and insurance business, Quinn Group, to a receiver last week. Anglo Irish Bank has since appointed Kieran Wallace of KPMG as share receiver to Quinn Group ROI Ltd last Thursday. The group owes €2.88 billion to the bank.

Ireland’s Supreme Court last week ruled that the legislation governing the National Asset Management Agency was constitutional. In the appeal to the Supreme Court, developer Paddy McKillen challenged the legislation underpinning the state body. The court did not agree that the definition of eligible bank loans in the NAMA legislation was too broad and was unconstitutional, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. Despite losing his appeal on the issue of the Constitutionality of the 2009 Act, Mr. McKillan did succeed on the issue of fair procedures.

Europe's struggling periphery is bracing for another blow to its already grim economic growth prospects, this time from the soaring euro, which touched a 15-month high against the dollar on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The euro's rise, which makes products from the single-currency zone more expensive in global markets, will affect exporters throughout the 17-member currency bloc—particularly with global trade set to slow dramatically this year. The euro is almost 10% higher against the U.S. dollar since the start of the year, and 4% higher against the British pound.