Property investor Paddy McKillen has lost his Commercial Court action to prevent the transfer of some €2.1 billion of his loans to the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), The Irish Times reported. Nama had argued the size of the loan portfolio represented a “systemic risk” to the Irish financial system, justifying acquisition in the national interest. The case represented the first major challenge to the manner in which Nama operates.

Ireland's central bank proposed on Thursday stricter requirements for how financial services firms deal with customers as part of efforts to beef up consumer protection in the aftermath of a disastrous property crash, Reuters reported. Years of reckless lending brought Ireland's banks to the brink of collapse and have left many borrowers struggling to repay hefty mortgages. The Central Bank of Ireland wants lending practices tightened to prevent a repeat of the banking crisis.

The future of DVD rental chain Chartbusters hangs in the balance just 18 months after the High Court approved a rescue plan for the troubled company, The Irish Times reported. The company is understood to be preparing to appoint a liquidator to wind up the business, which operates about 20 stores and employs an estimated 170 full- and part-time staff in the Republic. Chartbusters began as a DVD rental outfit in the early 1990s, but branched into internet kiosks and tanning booths as competition put this business under pressure over the last decade.

Ireland's embattled Prime Minister Brian Cowen admitted Wednesday that accelerating €15 billion ($20.78 billion) in planned budget cuts will damp economic growth, but warned the country runs the risk of "not being able to borrow at all" if the steps aren't taken, The Wall Street Journal reported. Ireland's reputation has taken a battering on international markets amid doubts about its ability to bring its deficit, the highest in Europe, back under control. Record-high borrowing costs have forced the government to cancel the two remaining bond auctions planned this year.

When Anglo Irish Bank announced a long-awaited exchange offer for its junior debt last week, there was shock in the market at the harshness of the terms. There were also howls of protest privately from the debtholders themselves to the advisers of Anglo Irish, the institution bailed out nearly two years ago by Ireland’s government after being hit hard by the country’s property slump, the Financial Times reported. One irate investor described the offer as equivalent to a North Korean election.

Anglo Irish Bank’s former chief executive David Drumm has until Friday next to file a statement of his assets and liabilities in his bankruptcy proceedings in the US, the Commercial Court in Dublin heard yesterday, The Irish Times reported. Mr Justice Peter Kelly adjourned Anglo’s actions against Mr Drumm and his wife as a result of Mr Drumm’s unexpected decision earlier this month to file for voluntary bankruptcy in the US.

Anglo Irish Bank’s offer to swap its subordinated debt for new bonds is “tantamount to a default” because of the penalties inflicted on investors who refuse to take part, according to the Canadian credit ratings agency, DBRS, The Irish Times reported. The bank’s non-senior ratings will be reduced by one notch step to D for “Default” after Anglo completes the exchange, the Toronto-based agency said. The nationalised bank is offering investors 20 cents on the euro in new bonds on dated subordinated debt and 1 cent for every €1,000 face amount for those declining to take part.

Anglo Irish Bank announced Thursday it will make its junior bondholders absorb heavy losses on their euro3.5 billion ($4.9 billion) investments - the first loan defaults in Ireland since the nation's banking crisis began two years ago, the Associated Press reported. The nationalized Dublin lender, the most debt-crippled bank from Ireland's burst property bubble, said the two lowest tiers of bondholders would be offered payouts equivalent to 20 percent and 5 percent of their original investments, respectively.

The Republic faces an interest bill of about €7 billion on its national debt next year, a senior Department of Finance official confirmed yesterday, The Irish Times reported. Speaking to the Dáil’s Committee on Public Accounts yesterday, the department’s secretary general, Kevin Cardiff, agreed under questioning that an estimate of €7.5 billion was “about right” for the interest bill faced by taxpayers on the national debt.

Creditors of Aer Arann are set to receive €2.2 million from the airline’s new investors in settlement for their debts, The Irish Times reported. This is part of a scheme of arrangement that has been put together by Aer Arann’s examiner, Michael McAteer of Grant Thornton. Some creditors – notably the Dublin Airport Authority – are set to receive all of the money they are owed under the terms of the scheme, but others will get back just 2 per cent. It is understood that AIB’s exposure of €5.2 million would be rolled over into the new entity.