Irish insurers will have to set aside significantly more reserves to cover car crash, workplace injuries and other claims as compensation payouts surge, according to the industry’s regulator.

Shares in Bank of Ireland plummeted almost 9% yesterday on the back of Canadian insurer Fairfax Financial Holdings selling half of its 5.8% stake.

Smartphone maker BlackBerry has abandoned its bid to sell itself and is replacing its chief executive.

BlackBerry Ltd, coping with the collapse of a $4.7bn buyout by Fairfax Financial Holdings, will raise $1bn in convertible bonds and seek a new chief executive officer for the struggling company.

A shareholder of BlackBerry Ltd sued the company and executives on Friday, accusing them of inflating the stock price by painting a misleadingly rosy picture of the prospects of its BlackBerry 10 smartphone line.

Fairfax Financial Holdings — which has seen its 2011 investment in Ireland’s biggest bank jump about 50% — is now focusing on Greece, betting that the worst has passed for the recession-battered nation.

Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher’s retention was a condition for a group of investors that bought a stake in the lender in 2011, according to Finance Minister Michael Noonan.

Lars Frisell thought it would be easy to find an apartment to rent in Dublin, the epicentre of western Europe’s biggest real estate crash, after he moved from Sweden to become chief economist at Ireland’s central bank.

Representatives of two of the five investment firms which bought into Bank of Ireland last summer have taken seats on its board.

GREAT-West Lifeco, Canada’s second-largest insurer, is the leading candidate to acquire Irish Life & Permanent’s life assurance unit, according to two people familiar with the matter.

THE state’s holding in Bank of Ireland has dropped to just over 15% after a billion euro investment by a Canadian investment firm.

The State’s holding in Bank of Ireland has dropped to just more than 15% after €1bn investment by a Canadian investment firm.

Dublin: Reports over the weekend suggest that Bank of Ireland has entered exclusive talks with one of its new investors — US property firm Kennedy Wilson — to sell it its €1.5bn British loan book.

BANK of Ireland (BoI) shareholders have unanimously approved a €1.12 billion investment in the bank by a number of private investors, which reduces the state’s share holding to 15.1%.

JC FLOWERS & Co is among five bidders vying to buy Irish Life & Permanent’s life assurance unit, the biggest insurer of its kind in the country.

US BILLIONAIRE investor Wilbur Ross has said he will look at other Irish-based investment opportunities, after his company took a near-10% stake in Bank of Ireland.

BANK of Ireland said the state will reduce its shareholding to 15.1% after the lender’s rights offering this week, making it the only one of the country’s six largest lenders to escape Government control.

Bank of Ireland has released details of the private investors which came forward earlier in the week to buy a substantial stake in the bank.