Time running out for refinancing of banks

IT looks increasingly likely that a resolution of the banking crisis will drag on into the new year.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan cannot have been too impressed when Irish Life & Permanent (IL&P) boss Denis Casey and the bank’s chairwoman, Gillian Bowler, arrived with a top lawyer in tow last Friday week for his second round of talks with the banks.

It was reported that Mr Casey said the bank would sue if Mr Lenihan tried to force it into a merger.