Senior bondholders face pain in fresh deal

THE Government will push to impose losses on some senior bondholders of Irish banks in a new bailout deal to be hammered out with the IMF, EU and European Central Bank.

Changes to the terms of the deal will be discussed after Thursday’s results of bank stress tests which are expected to show a capital hole of €25 billion in the institutions covered by the state guarantee. Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney said the results “will influence in a major way what Ireland is trying to do within the European Union at the moment which is to put together a final banking solution.”

Discussions with the “troika” of the EU, IMF and ECB will be aimed at reaching a “sustainable and comprehensive solution” to the banking crisis that would ” involve recapitalisation but also an element of burden sharing,” he added.