The European Central Bank (ECB) will charge banks in the eurozone for keeping cash on deposit in an unprecedented bid to get money flowing and tackle the threat of deflation.

ECB President Mario Draghi slashed the official interest rate – what banks pay to borrow – to 0.15pc yesterday. More radically it introduced a “negative interest rate” on overnight deposits from banks.

That means euro-area lenders, including banks here, will …

NAMA has paid a further €1.15bn to the Central Bank to settle debts originally owed by the bust former Anglo Irish Bank.

Last year the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) “bought” a €12.93bn charge, or mortgage, over the assets of IBRC – the former Anglo Irish Bank that was previously held by the Central Bank as security for emergency loans to the bank.

The deal was part of the wider …

Management and technology consultancy BearingPoint says big organisations should ‘be nicer’ to small and medium sized suppliers.

BearingPoint also warns that overly rigid procurement policies threaten the survival of SMEs.

A report by BearingPoint recommends that big companies and public sector organisations should partner more with SME suppliers rather than continually squeezing them on cost.

The report, launched by cable operator UPC and research firm Amarach, predicts up to 150,000 new jobs from what it calls the Irish internet economy.

It says that consumer spending will make up 60pc of this surge in online activity. The report found that 60pc or €3.5bn of Irish spending currently goes abroad.

The European Central Bank is poised to impose negative interest rates on its overnight depositors, seeking to cajole banks into lending instead and to prevent the euro zone falling into Japan-like deflation.

At its meeting on Thursday, ECB policymakers may also launch a loan program for banks with strings attached to make sure the money actually gets out into the euro zone economy.

It will be the first of the …