The former head of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), Michael Somers, who helped set up the agency during the crisis of the late 1980s, said the banks could do much more during the Covid-19 crisis.

Ireland, as part of a coordinated approach with the eurozone, will likely be offered some sort of bank guarantee to respond to the Covid-19 fallout, such is the exceptional nature of the crisis , leading economists have said.

The Irish economy is heading into recession a senior economist has warned, as official measures designed to defeat the Covid-19 outbreak hits the jobs-rich industries of tourism, hospitality, and retail.

For readers who recall the markets after 9/11 in 2001, October 1987, and the Lehman crash in 2008, there’s a sense of deja vu in what happened to stock markets in recent days.

The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) is working on scenarios that take account of significant hits to the Irish economy should the coronavirus crisis lead to the Government imposing long periods of quarantine.

A debate about whether Permanent TSB can keep its independence and remain as a standalone bank has not gone away despite the huge strides made in restoring it to financial health since the crash, leading analysts have said.

The retirement of Dubliner Willie Walsh from the IAG airline conglomerate he created will likely have little effect on the growth plans at Aer Lingus any time soon.

The Central Bank may make “some tweaks” to its existing mortgage lending rules — particularly for first-time buyers in Dublin — but wholesale changes are not expected, one analyst has claimed.

Goodbody Stockbrokers is set to be sold to Bank of China in a deal understood to be worth around €150m, after a lengthy sales process.

Grafton Group shares fell 2% after the builders’ merchants said it had sold its well-known plumbing supplies firm Plumbase in Britain for a net £60.7m (€68.3m), deal analysts said was consistent with it getting out of low-profit yielding and competitive businesses.

Irish shares and Government bond yields fell today as a political manoeuvre by UK prime minister Boris Johnson was seen as boosting the chances of a crash-out Brexit at Halloween and an early British election.

There are some very large movements taking place in financial markets at present that remind us how important diversification in financial planning is.

The cost for the Irish State for any long-term borrowing is fast approaching zero as markets reacted to the nomination of Christine Lagarde to head up the ECB.

Fundamental changes in how we live, fundamental changes in our capacity to realise expectations we hold dear can take hold almost under the radar.

The chance of the ECB being forced into decisive action to cut interest rates increased significantly as market expectations for inflation “collapsed” to a new low, a leading economist has said.

UK retail banking customers enjoy the benefits of a highly competitive market which has seen aggressive pressures on mortgage pricing, personal loan pricing, and savings rates.

Reaching an interim target of 22,000 new homes this year may be missed because of the pressures of affordability and the fact that too few apartments are under construction, according to a new analysis.

So that’s Thursday nearly wrapped up. Here are some of the stories we published on irishexaminer.com today which we hope will help you make sense of it all this evening.

One of the many remarkable outcomes of the Brexit debacle is the disdain displayed towards the business community by the UK political establishment, writes Joe Gill.

A no-deal Brexit at the end of next month will lead to the Irish economy tipping into recession and “the economic, political, and social consequences of the coming eight weeks could not be higher”, broker Goodbody has warned.

The Government must play a much bigger role in providing new homes because elevated land and construction costs mean the private market cannot build at prices the vast majority of potential buyers can afford.

The extraordinary Brexit events in London this past week have already had an impact across the Irish Sea. Witness the sharp downturn in share values and a plunge in the value of sterling.

Shares in Glanbia fell over 8%, bringing their losses to 12% in the last year, despite the foods firm saying it is on course to secure its earnings goal and pointing to a less threatening foreign currency “headwind” from its US operations.

Kerry-based financial services and money transfer group Fexco is eyeing more acquisitions to boost its retail foreign exchange outlet business.

Glanbia has reached agreement to buy well-known weight control food brand SlimFast for $350m (€302m).

Central Bank governor Philip Lane has proposed that the Government back a revamped Special Savings Incentive Account (SSIA) scheme, more than 17 years after former finance minister Charlie McCreevy presided over a widely criticised €16bn scheme to encourage savers to set aside money on a regular basis.

AN overseas investment fund, as yet unconfirmed, is the buyer of the c€30 million residential-led investment sale of the City Square development, in Cork City’s Blackpool, which has a weekly income of €40,000, or c €2m per annum.

House building is at “unsustainable and incredibly low levels” and is coming nowhere close to meeting demand, according to a new analysis by Goodbody’s Dermot O’Leary.

Last week my colleagues in Goodbody organised an event on the theme of “funding the future of Cork”.

US investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald Ireland has struck an agreement to buy Merrion Capital, the broker with offices in Dublin and Cork. The deal, which is subject to Central Bank approval, comes after Irish brokers have faced continuing tough markets since the banking and property crash, despite the strong recovery of recent years.

The Central Bank said the true number of home completions will be around 23,500 this year and 28,500 in 2019. But its new research is unlikely to put the controversy over counting new homes to bed any time soon, writes Eamon Quinn.

INM shares decline 5% on ODCE probe news.

The approach for Belfast-based Lagan Group — one of Ireland’s largest cement, building products, and contractors — said an approach by the UK stock-market listed Breedon for part of its business does not involve any Lagan company involved in legal disputes over the use of pyrite in homes and other premises.

Accumulated profits at Co Kerry-based financial services and money transfer giant Fexco jumped by €16m to €304m in 2016, probably helped by a better performance of Goodbody, the broker which it also owns.

The new US corporate tax regime which is set to be implemented on January 1 will heighten the “tug of love” between Brussels and Washington over the €13bn in back taxes Apple owes Ireland, a leading tax expert has predicted.

Five of the country’s main stockbroking firms are set to share nearly €159m from the sale of the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE).

Analysts are expected to increase net profit forecasts for Origin Enterprises, following the Dublin-based agri-services group reporting a strong start to its current financial yea, writes Geoff Percival.

Ryanair’s pilot uprising shows little signs of abating, with an ad-hoc group demanding that a wage increase turned down by crews at London’s Stansted Airport be doubled and extended across the airline’s European bases.

As we move into autumn, corporate Ireland continues to grow and expand.

House completion levels are currently running at nearly 10,000 less than is being suggested by official data, according to new figures from Goodbody which suggest the housing supply crisis is in even worse state than previously thought.

The first hike in interest rates may be longer away than thought as the ECB holds off for almost a further three years despite the eurozone expanding at a fast clip, a leading economist has predicted.

Shares in CRH rose 3% after the building-materials giant announced it was to buy a leading US cement manufacturer for $3.5bn (€2.93bn).

A surge in the value of sterling against the euro on increased speculation that a UK rate hike is looming has for the time being eased fears about the fallout of Brexit boosting cross-border shopping and disrupting the economy.

The €45.6m purchase of the John Cleary Developments’ Capitol development in Cork city by a German pension fund “is a major confidence boost for the city” and a positive omen for new development, according to Goodbody investment analyst Colm Lauder.