In a dramatic illustration of the upheavals in Ireland following the crash of the Celtic Tiger, the nationalised Anglo Irish Bank announced Thursday that it had seized control of the Quinn Group from ex-billionaire Seán Quinn and his family, Finfacts reported. Seán Quinn, Ireland's once richest man, built up a conglomerate originally from quarrying and later he moved into cement and glass production.

AIB would consider writing off debts for some mortgage holders who cannot repay loans as a long-term way of resolving problem cases, the bank’s executive chairman David Hodgkinson said. Debt forgiveness was one option being considered, the bank said, as it posted a record loss of €10.4 billion for 2010 and unveiled plans to shed more than 2,000 staff – one in seven jobs at the bank, the Irish Times reported. Mr Hodgkinson said there was a range of possibilities for distressed borrowers, including a reduction on repayments by extending a loan period or writing off some debt.

The woes of Irish banks, unlike those at peer institutions elsewhere in Europe's suffering periphery, are not a concern merely for the banks' own solvency. They are a national solvency problem, too—or at least they became one when the government decided to insure bank creditors in September 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported in a commentary. It is this, more serious aspect of the Irish crisis that remains unaddressed in the government's new bailout plans. Ireland's public debt is clearly unsustainable.

The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) is looking at ways of providing mortgage finance to banks in an attempt to energise the Republic’s moribund property market, the Irish Times reported. State agency chairman Frank Daly told a group of property professionals yesterday that he wants to begin talks with the State’s two biggest banks on means of providing finance to homebuyers. Such a move could require a change in the legislation that established Nama, depending on what steps it finally decides to take.

A new European Central Bank liquidity facility to help Ireland’s struggling banks is not likely “for the moment”, Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan has said. In an interview with Market News International, he also said it was too soon to say when the State could return to international bond markets for funding instead of relying on its €85 billion EU-IMF rescue package, the Irish Times reported.

Financial regulator Matthew Elderfield says he expects legal challenges to fitness and probity tests from executives and directors who served in Irish banks before the financial collapse and who wish to serve in senior posts after January 2012, the Irish Times reported. Such tests would examine their individual performances before the crisis and could lead to them being removed from office and barred from serving as company directors.

Ireland's banking regulator said it will take years for investors to regain confidence in the country's banks, which in the meantime are likely to remain reliant on funding from central banks, The Wall Street Journal reported. "It's going to take a while before there's an Irish bond issue" from a bank, said Matthew Elderfield, the head of financial regulation at the Central Bank of Ireland, in an interview in London on Wednesday. "We may get some market interest in a couple years' time." Mr.

Eircom chief executive Paul Donovan told staff yesterday that he will not get a bonus of €4 million in 2012, as was reported by a Sunday newspaper last weekend, the Irish Times reported. But Mr Donovan made no comment on whether a two-year, voluntary pay cut of 10 per cent that he accepted in 2009 would be reversed in July, as was previously agreed with the company. The media report had angered many staff in Eircom, who only last week agreed to accept the terms of a wide-ranging restructuring plan aimed at reducing labour costs by €92 million.

The €24 billion bank recapitalisation plan is positive for Ireland's financial system but negative for its creditworthiness, credit rating agency Moody's said today, highlighting the possibility of another downgrade, the Irish Times reported. Moody's warning comes on the heels of Standard & Poor's one-notch downgrade of Irish debt and Fitch's flagging of another rating cut amid concerns about Ireland's ability to deal with one of the world's costliest bank bailouts.

The National Asset Management Agency (Nama) has warned that proposed changes to rent legislation would “significantly impact” on its ability to repay the debt it has issued, the Irish Times reported. The agency is “very concerned” about the impact any move to allow retrospective rent reviews could have on the value of its assets. Any such legislation would have a “dramatic reduction in the value of the income-producing assets transferred to Nama” because investment properties are valued on a multiple of their annual rent.