Pepper Money, a unit of an Australian loans giant which has Irish bases in Shannon and Dublin, has said it will provide corporate loans for the first time in Ireland after it identified a huge demand for companies and professionals to refinance existing loans or buy new properties.

The entry of Pepper Homeloans is good news but will fail to loosen to any significant extent the grip Bank of Ireland and AIB holds over the Irish mortgage market, a leading mortgage expert has said.

Danske bank has announced that Pepper Asset Servicing will administer the accounts of their 14,000 mortgages holders after they pull out of consumer banking in Ireland.