Moody's to upgrade Irish bonds for second time in 2014
IRELAND’s bond rating will probably be raised today for the second time in less than six months by Moody’s, as the economy stabilises and concerns that the eurozone may be under threat eases, analysts have predicted.
Moody’s is widely expected to bolster its ranking of Irish bonds to Baa2 from Baa3 as the ratings company delivers its latest verdict on the country, according to six of nine analysts and economists …
Families to pay €700 more after sneaky USC hike
Hundreds of thousands of pensioners and families with medical cards are facing a sneaky tax hike – while high-earning self-employed people will enjoy a tax cut.
The increase of as much as €700 a year for a single-income family on €40,000 a year will come as a result of a huge jump in the amount of universal social charge (USC) paid by up to 360,000 people.
The hike arises from …
Ireland lobbies for new money markets tracking agency
Ireland is lobbying global banking authorities in Switzerland to become the base for the organisation that will set up and implement a worldwide system for tracking players on the money markets.
The Basel-based Financial Stability Board (FSB) sets global bank standards and is creating a new agency to implement a planned system of assigning unique Legal Entity Identifier numbers to all participants in the capital markets to ensure greater transparency.
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Credit unions target young adults with €2bn loan blitz
CREDIT unions have been encouraged to target young adults in a move that could see up to €2bn lent to them to buy cars and fund education.
And people between the ages of 18 and 34 have a high regard for the community-owned lenders.
Almost half of adults under the age of 34 would consider taking out a loan from their credit union, a conference in Dublin hosted by international …
Fall in homeowners in arrears on mortgages
THERE has been a fall in the numbers of homeowners in arrears on their mortgages. Despite the fall in the numbers behind on their payments, the main domestic banks have yet to restructure three out of four distressed mortgages.
Figures out this afternoon from the Department of Finance show that there are now just short of 78,500 residential mortgage accounts were three months or more behind on payments at the …