News

Dalata has reported pre-tax profits of €44.1m for the year ended 31 December 2016 – up 55pc for the same period the previous year. Ireland’s largest hotel operator has also recorded revenue of €290.6m, up 28.8pc compared with the year ended in 2015. Dalata operates Ireland’s two largest hotel brands, Clayton Hotels and Maldron Hotels […]

BANK of Ireland lent more than £1bn to businesses in the North last year – up by a third. The bank said the growth took place across small, medium and large businesses. Overall, small company lending saw a 22pc increase in 2016. And the bank said that, “despite the headwinds”, demand for agri-business was also […]

Online financial services and lending companies are increasingly being targeted by fraudsters and costing consumers millions of pounds around the world last year alone, according to research. Cyber attacks against online lending companies and alternative payment systems increased 122pc last year, according to ThreatMetrix, a security company that monitors more than £20bn(€23.5bn) online transactions a […]

Cork-based financial services firm Global Shares aims to be in a position in 2020 where it could stage an initial public offering (IPO) on either the London Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq. The firm is expected to be valued at about €100m by then and making pre-tax profits of $16m (€15.1m) A recent fundraising by […]

Consumers are less confident about the economy this month than they were in January, as Brexit and US President Donald Trump’s protectionist rhetoric played on their minds. But the latest Bank of Ireland Economic Pulse shows that businesses were slightly more upbeat, with continuing evidence that the economy is improving, and employment rising. The Bank […]

Eir has launched a process to cut the cost of its debts, by asking lenders to accept lower interest payments. Last summer Eir, formerly Eircom, reaped savings of €17m a year when it refinanced bonds that carried a 9.25pc interest rate and were set to mature in 2020, with new bonds issued at a rate […]

Bank of Ireland(BOI) has announced that it will not pay shareholders a dividend until 2018. The bank said it had taken the decision to award dividend payments to shareholders at the end of the 2017 financial year. BOI announced underlying profit of €1,071m for 2016 and said it has increased the size of its core […]

Ulster Bank’s operating profit in Ireland fell by €338m last year as a result of costs paid to thousands of its customers affected by the tracker mortgage scandal. The bank posted a profit of just €24m for last year due to an increase in lititgation costs of €229m. The bank also suffred a €56m loss […]

The impact of Brexit on the Irish economy is likely to be “negative and material,” the Central Bank deputy governor has said, as she revealed it is monitoring the effects on Irish banks with UK arms. New data yesterday showed that the UK economy sped up at the end of 2016. But over the whole […]

AIB is closing half of its bank branches in Northern Ireland Ireland as part of a dramatic shake-up. A total of 15 of its 30 branches are to shut down in the next six months. No further closures are planned in the Republic. It is likely the closures will generate criticism in the North, where […]