Archive for August 2020

Economic sentiment fell backwards in August for the first time since the country began to emerge from lockdown and despite the Government’s Stimulus Package announced on July 23. Ireland is an outlier with European Commission data on Friday suggesting economic confidence in the euro area as a whole had continued to improve in August. Here…

Irish pension schemes have reduced their equity allocations by almost a third in the past three years as they diversify into fixed income and real assets – property and infrastructure – as new sources of returns. Mercer’s 2020 European Asset allocation insights shows average equity allocations for Irish defined benefit schemes fell to 27% this…

State-backed fund Microfinance Ireland has opened its new €15m Covid-19 fund to support small businesses through the current period of uncertainty and to protect jobs that have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic here.  Small businesses can apply for loans up to €25,000 for a three-year term with no repayments and no interest due for…

Banks in the UK are coming under growing pressure from regulators to get their new hubs in the European Union up and running even as Covid-19 and foot-dragging by clients disrupt Brexit relocation plans, banks and regulators say.  Unfettered direct access to the EU for Britian’s financial services sector, worth around £26 billion a year,…

Some financial brokers are still not aware that they need to submit audited accounts to the Central Bank every year. The regulator said there is also a need for greater accuracy in the data submitted to it by some intermediaries. It said it was engaged in follow-up supervisory check-ups with firms where gaps have been…

There was a sharp rise in the number of people approved for a mortgage last month compared with the previous month. Close to 3,400 buyers were approved for a home loan, a rise of 51pc on the figures for June. But this was still down 30pc on the number approved for a mortgage in July…

The international financial services and insurance sectors are set to be among the industries least impacted by Covid-19, according to a report from the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation. The assessment does not include the domestic banks, which have all posted interim losses this year due to the global pandemic. Nonetheless, the sector is…

German coalition parties agreed on Tuesday to extend measures to cushion the effects of the coronavirus crisis on Europe’s biggest economy at a cost of up to €10bn, including prolonging a short-time work scheme and freezing insolvency rules. The German economy contracted at its steepest rate on record in the second quarter and the government…

Sterling slipped against the euro today on lingering concerns over Brexit, after British and European Union negotiators said on Friday they had made no real progress in their latest talks on relations after December 31.  Against the euro, the pound was down 0.2% at 90.28 pence.  Sterling was slightly up against the US dollar, having…

UP TO 36,000 homes will be needed each year to meet demand and there have been calls to introduce a stimulus package for first-time buyers, according to a new survey. The report found this number of homes will be vital to meet demand across the next two decades. But clear suggestions were made for schemes…