LENDER Permanent TSB is turning a corner, chief executive Jeremy Masding said today, announcing the company’s 2013 results.

“Our key message is that permanent tsb bank is turning the corner. I’m delighted to be able to confirm that the permanent tsb Strategic Business Unit – effectively our customer-facing business – is now trading profitably,” he said.

The bank continues to make losses, however, on its so called non-core units.

Improving …

State-owned AIB is to launch a new option for homeowners in arrears that will see the interest rate they pay slashed.

A family with a €200,000 mortgage on a variable rate of 4.5pc could see their monthly repayments drop by as much as €400 under the plan.

The move will see those in financial trouble offered the option of having the interest rate they pay cut to as low as …

NEW OECD proposals on taxing hi-tech multinational companies will fundamentally change their business models, Chartered Accountants Ireland warned yesterday.

It said plans to alter the way these global firms are taxed would only benefit large countries with large markets.

The Paris-based economic think tank has published a draft discussion on companies operating in the digital economy.

Bord Gáis has confirmed the terms of the sale of its energy division to a consortium made up of Centrica, Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners and Icon Infrastructure.

In a statement, the company said that the full terms of the sale have been finalised and transaction documentation signed on the $1.1bn deal which is expected to be completed in the second quarter of this year.

Bord Gáis Energy staff will transfer …

A RANGE of criminal investigation powers will be given to a new consumer protection agency to prosecute price-fixing cartels that push up prices for shoppers.

Offenders also face prohibition notices, compliance notices, on-the-spot fines for offences relating to price display and being named and shamed for failing to comply with consumer law.

Telephone and internet service providers will also be required to retain details of internet and call data for …

RISK is an inevitable fact of life. Every day we evaluate – consciously and unconsciously – all kinds of risks, from investment decisions and career changes to whether or not to overtake another car or make a tackle on the playing field. We weigh up the chances of things working out well and things working out badly.

We humans should be quite good at this because, unlike all other creatures, …

GOVERNMENT contingency plans to replace the euro amid fears that the single currency would collapse are revealed today.

The Sunday Independent has learned that detailed measures were drawn up by Central Bank officials as fears of a break-up of the euro mounted in late 2011 and early 2012, despite a raft of official denials at the time.

The plans, devised under utmost secrecy, were deemed necessary to examine “all possible …

EUROPEAN politicians finally struck a deal on the final piece of the ambitious banking union plan early after marathon talks.

The compromise, which is a provisional agreement, ended weeks of tough talks between governments and the European Parliament over common rules on shutting failing banks and deciding who will foot the bill.

Once the deal is formally signed off by the parliament and national governments, the new law will create …

Merrill Lynch told the Government back in 2008 that it would cost a maximum of €16.4bn to rescue banks. In the end it cost four times that amount.

The Government paid Merrill Lynch a hefty €7.3m in return for banking advice in 2008 and 2009.

The expensive advice was contained in a 45-page presentation to the Department of Finance given in November 2008. Merrill estimated the recapitalisation costs at between …

Europe’s leaders are in Brussels today. Their annual March summit is supposed to be about bread-and-butter economic issues first and foremost. At this year’s gathering they should be focusing on ways they can spur growth in their economies and across the wider EU economy. But, as is often the case, more immediate matters intrude to distract from the main agenda issue – in this case it is what sort of …