Bank of Ireland is on course to reach a break- even pre-tax profit level in the second half of this year before returning to outright profitability next year, according to Davy Stockbrokers.

As Ireland edges back into bond markets, the banks that tipped the country into bankruptcy remain reliant on aid while bad mortgages mount.

The National Pension Reserve Fund hired Goodbody Stockbrokers to establish that investors are applying an “inappropriate” €66 billion value on state-owned Allied Irish Banks Plc.

The Vita Cortex workers have vowed to continue their sit-in despite threats of legal action.

ALLIED Irish Banks, the country’s second-largest bank by assets, has a market value bigger than UBS and Barclays, even after its third bailout by the Government.

FINANCIAL Regulator Matthew Elderfield has stated that forcing banks to sell off their loan books quickly would result in huge losses, but conceded that the process must continue.

BANK of Ireland is being linked to a further debt buy-back exercise — that could raise hundreds of millions of euro — as part of its ongoing attempts to meet its necessary re-funding targets by the end of next month.

ANGLO Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society will start talks with Government officials this week to decide which parts of the state-controlled lenders may be merged following the country’s bailout, two people with knowledge of the discussions said.

CONSUMERS are continuing to borrow less and are increasingly struggling to meet mortgage repayments, figures reveal.

FBD is not planning any premium hikes despite paying out €50 million as a result of the big freeze and the floods last year.

THE appointment of rent receivers should be explored for the Irish market, according to Davy Stockbrokers.

BANK shares plunged yesterday as markets across Europe took a battering.

AIB is expected to sell its €2.8 billion 70.47% stake in Warsaw-based Bank Zachodni WBK in the fourth quarter or the first quarter of next year, chief executive of the Polish bank, Mateusz Morawiecki, said at a news conference in Warsaw.

KBC Bank is not ruling out an interest rate increase for some of its 58,000 mortgage customers in Ireland this year.

A jury has been told that a car salesman assaulted a client who returned a car he had bought and then directed the bank to stop the €23,750 repayment cheque.

WITH a new hotel on the way, and even the possibility of a marina, Schull is going to continue its upward property trajectory.

The president of the IMPACT trade union has said the failure of employers to share the country's wealth with their workers is the main sticking point in the stalled pay talks.

PRIVATE vested interests are intent on destroying the gains made by trade unions, IMPACT president Stephen Lyons told the union’s biennial conference in Killarney last night.

THE OECD has warned that pay increases should be in line with productivity, but worker representatives are calling for pay rises to keep pace with inflation, which looks likely to run over 4% this year, and a further 3.5% next year.