A Cork woman who ripped off almost €60,000 in false social welfare claims and used the money mainly to buy drink, rather than cars or any luxuries, was yesterday jailed for nine months.

Andy Murray and Tomas Berdych will meet for the 11th time when they face each other in the semi-finals of the Australian Open on Thursday. Now, we look back at their past matches.

Glen Rovers 3-15 Erin’s Own 0-18

AIB is hiking up bank charges to personal and business customers — with ATM transactions increasing by as much as 133%.

AIB is looking at debt writedown options to alleviate the repayment burden for certain borrowers, but is working on an affordability approach rather than blanket write-offs.

As if 48 medals wasn’t enough, it seems a British newspaper is determined to take one of ours as their own.

AIB could close up to 90 branches, many in rural areas, as part of a restructuring programme which will see An Post delivering traditional banking services to the lender’s customers.

AIB outlined a complete reorganisation of its structures in a new strategy document released internally to staff yesterday and seen by the Irish Examiner.

Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher survived a probe that could have cost him his job after the Central Bank said it had found no reason to doubt the fitness to serve of some of the country’s senior bankers.

David Nalbandian was disqualified from this afternoon’s AEGON Championships final against Marin Cilic after kicking an advertising panel in to a line judge’s leg.

The chief executive of the Educational Building Society, Fergus Murphy, is putting his name behind a €2bn plan to create a Chinese trade hub and university campus in Cork.

LAST Thursday, some of the most powerful men in all of Irish sport met in Leinster House.

AIB and EBS have this evening announced the terms of their merger to form one of two Irish ‘pillar’ banks.

THE EBS Building Society — which yesterday reported a seven-fold increase in annual after-tax losses, to €590 million — has said that it is open to the concept of “debt forgiveness” for defaulting mortgage customers, but only on an individual case-by-case basis.

THE EBS Building Society may be asked to curtail its business activities as part of its restructuring plans to justify keeping the €875 million it received from the state.

IRISH Life & Permanent is still seen as the lead contender to buy EBS despite strong interest by three international consortia.

EBS lost a massive €250 million before tax in the first half of 2010 due to bad debt charges on its loans.

THE battle for control of EBS Building Society has moved up a notch. Irish Life & Permanent has emerged as a potential buyer.

EBS Building Society, which is now controlled by the state, could be demutualised with the next 12 months.

EBS Building Society, which is now controlled by the state, could be demutualised with the next 12 months.

BORROWERS at EBS building society face another hike of 0.6% on their mortgages before the year end, adding 1.2% to the cost of variable mortgages in 2010.

TOP-level talks that could determine the future direction of EBS Building Society and Cardinal Capital Group – led by Irishmen Nick Corcoran and Nigel McDermott – are talking place.

BANKS have been accused of trying to convince struggling homeowners to let go of cost-effective tracker mortgages when they seek help with their repayments.

THE head of Germany’s Central Bank has expressed serious doubt over the potential effectiveness of the proposed European Stabilisation Fund, which is aimed at reducing future failings in the international banking sector.

MEMBERS of the Irish Nationwide and EBS building societies have voted in favour of resolutions which will enable the Government to invest fresh capital into both companies.

The head of the EBS Building Society has said there an urgent need to put a rescue plan in place to help homeowners struggling to meet mortgage repayments.

RADICAL plans to ‘warehouse’ or shelve portions of mortgages owed by recession-hit homeowners are being considered by Ireland’s biggest customer-owned lender.

Dublin: Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS) has confirmed that merger discussions with the EBS Building Society have begun. The chief executives of both companies – INBS’ Gerry McGinn and Fergus Murphy of EBS – met yesterday to open talks.

ANY deal allowing EBS Building Society to absorb the assets of Irish Nationwide Building Society technically needs the approval of both sets of members.

THE Educational Building Society (EBS) will start merger talks with the Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS) this week, says EBS boss Fergus Murphy.

Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan is to give the keynote address at an upcoming conference on Ireland's new structures of financial regulation.

The EBS has announced that it has successfully raised €1bn after issuing Mortgage Covered Securities.

HOMEOWNERS are facing the spectre of mortgage hikes as banks plan a raft of interest rate increases to claw back losses.

HOMEOWNERS should fix mortgage rates immediately to avoid getting stung if banks increase interest rates, according to banking analysts.

EBS Building Society says it will need up to €300 million of a capital injection from the Government after it transfers more than €500m in bad loans to the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA).

MORTGAGE rates are “highly likely” to go up across the banking sector over the next year, according to the head of the EBS, who yesterday claimed his building society needs a €300 million capital injection from the State.

EBS Building Society will have written off more than 20% of its €500 million development lending portfolio between 2008 and 2009.

ACCBank, which is part of the Rabobank Group, announced its chief executive Fergus Murphy has resigned his position with immediate effect to become president of Shelbourne Developments, the Irish property company developing the Chicago Spire project.

ACCBank, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dutch-owned Rabobank, has announced pre-tax profits of €67.3 million for last year against €32.4m in 2005.

ACCBank has appointed former Rabobank Ireland MD Fergus Murphy as chief executive, effective from April 10. Mr Murphy is currently head of Asia for Rabobank.