The chance of the European Central Bank (ECB) hiking interest rates this year has fallen to 15% and financial markets expect rates to rise only once in 2020, by a slender quarter point.

A surge in sterling as EU and UK negotiators reached a breakthrough in the Brexit talks could be shortlived, analysts have warned, as many political obstacles to closing the deal lie ahead.

AIB fared relatively better than its main rival Bank of Ireland in so-called stress tests conducted on large European banks by regulators, but the outlook for their shares will likely remain clouded for some time.

The new chief at Bank of Ireland has pledged the bank will do a lot better as the bank’s directors faced a barrage of criticism from shareholders over its care of customers, the alleged lack of staff at its branches, and mistakes such as cheques being cashed with the wrong amounts.

Irish bank shares, and in particular those of Permanent TSB face political risks of tighter regulatory controls over sales of mortgage loans in long-term arrears to vulture funds, a leading analyst has said, writes Eamon Quinn.

Most Irish households would probably struggle to identify any direct link between their daily lives and a slump in hugely-overvalued American company stock prices, writes Eamon Quinn.

A potential for a snap election has generated huge interest from abroad but Irish bonds and the euro were left untouched as investors bet the effect on the looming Brexit summit would be limited, writes Eamon Quinn.

For the first time, Bank of Ireland has said it may have to put aside more money to meet the costs of the tracker mortgage scandal, but says any additional amount will be “manageable”.

Ireland could attract fewer manufacturing investments in future years from US pharmaceutical giants, according to a leading analyst, as President Donald Trump unveiled a plan to cut the tax levied on US companies to 20%.

There was no disguising the double whammy that the unexpected US election result meant for Ireland’s prosperity.

There is a very low risk that political strains at home will scupper the launch of a sale of shares in AIB by early summer, analysts have said.

A decision to delay paying its first dividend since the financial crisis was mainly due to accounting issues surrounding the bank’s pension scheme, and not to do with underlying issues such as Brexit, Bank of Ireland has said.

An early sale of shares worth up to €3bn in Government-owned AIB could be delayed amid calls for Taoiseach Enda Kenny to step down.

The Government has little room for significant tax cuts despite the European Commission projecting the economy here will grow at a healthy rate through 2018, according to analysts.

A group representing some of the biggest credit unions in the country said they plan to make a splash into the mortgage market, with €400m in new lending.

Sterling yesterday surrendered most of the ground it had gained after Theresa May outlined her hard Brexit vision for Britain on Tuesday, as investors looked to Irish property stocks as potential winners from the UK’s rupture with Brussels.

Lenders have probably the room to cut mortgage costs by up to a quarter of a percentage point over the next three months but their scope for major cuts later next year is probably diminishing, a senior analyst has said.

Spanish stocks dropped after elections on Sunday left no clear winner, signalling weeks of political instability ahead.

The lack of any 11th-hour breakthrough in talks between Athens and key eurozone leaders meant markets were little riled by the failure of Greece to meet the repayment to the IMF due yesterday.

Ireland’s rating will probably be raised for the second time in less than six months by Moody’s Investors Service as the economy stabilises and concern that the eurozone may be under threat eases.

Multinational companies operating in Ireland are confident that they will increase their turnover and employment levels here despite a growing skills shortage.

Ireland’s government bonds fell yesterday, outperforming all their eurozone counterparts after Moody’s Investors Service raised the outlook on the nation’s debt, citing stability in its access to financial markets.

The NTMA has auctioned another €500m worth of short-term government debt, albeit at a marginally smaller interest rate.

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has successfully completed its latest short-term bond auction, with €500m worth of treasury bills sold at a marginally improved interest rate.

As the country’s leaders try to limit the fallout from the tax crossfire between Apple and US politicians, bond markets suggest they don’t have to worry.

Irish banks issued €8bn of bonds this week before the expiry of a government guarantee that allows them to be used as collateral with the ECB.

The NTMA will most likely issue a 10-year bond in the very near future to take advantage of the positive market sentiment towards Ireland following the agreement reached with the ECB over the restructuring of the promissory notes, says Lorcan Roche Kelly, chief European strategist with the US hedge fund, Trend Macro.

AIB has raised €500m through a 3.5-year covered bond. This is the second time the State-owned bank has tapped the private markets since last November.

The NTMA will tomorrow raise €500m through an auction of three-month treasury bills.

The Government has recouped €170m on its €1 billion investment in Bank of Ireland through convertible contingent capital tier 2 notes.

The NTMA will look to raise about €2bn this week through a syndicated tap of an existing bond.

Bank of Ireland raised €250m through a 10-year subordinated bond with a coupon of 10%. The issue was up to four times oversubscribed.

If Ireland were to get the same conditions given to the Greeks, it would reduce the budget deficit substantially over the next few difficult years, according to analysts.

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) successfully tapped the markets for a further €500m in three-month treasury bills yesterday.

Irish bond yields rose by 0.25% in trading yesterday on the back of comments made on Tuesday night by the finance ministers from Germany, Holland and Finland that appeared to rule out a deal on Irish bank debt.

Ireland is considering selling a US dollar-denominated bond to open another funding avenue in its return to international markets, according to sources.

The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) yesterday raised €1.02bn through its first issue of amortising bonds, with an average yield of 5.91% and with maturities ranging from 15 to 35 years.

The ECB could be on the verge of unleashing its biggest ‘bazooka’ yet in an effort to contain the eurozone debt crisis.

Irish pension funds may buy as much as €10bn of domestic sovereign annuity bonds within three years, according to Zurich Life Assurance Plc, the first insurer cleared by regulators to offer such products as the country returns to debt markets.

Ireland is hoping for a window of relative calm in the eurozone debt crisis over the coming weeks to make a return to short-term bond markets on schedule and stay there.

The cost of borrowing for the Government reached a record high this morning.