AIB has done a deal to shift some bad-loan risks off its balance sheet in a move that will underpin payouts to shareholders in coming years even as falling interest rates put pressure on income. The so-called significant risk transfer agreement sees institutional investors take on part of the risk of losses on €1bn of corporate loans in the portfolio.
Things are moving on the new mandatory workplace pension scheme, auto-enrolment, with the Department of Social Protection saying it plans to start its long-awaited official search for four investment firms to manage the assets in the coming weeks. Less good news is that it is now planning a flat charge per member to run the scheme which will disproportionately affect lower paid workers.
Figures from the Irish League of Credit Unions, which represents 90 per cent of the credit unions in the State, show that mortgage lending by the sector has jumped by 51 per cent so far this year, with mortgages now making up 10 per cent of the total loan book of the sector.
A survey by PwC says Irish people are more engaged with Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping than peers across Europe, according. Around two-thirds say they are likely to go hunting bargains next weekend, spending an average of €329. The figures run counter to findings in a report by consumer watchdog, the CCPC, last week which said interest in the event was dropping, as was trust in the prospect of real deals.
Public relations and advisory group Teneo has reported profit of €3.39 million from its Irish units last year, a dramatic increase on 2022 when figures were impacted by the scaling up of its newly-established restructuring division.
In his column, Eoin Burke-Kennedy asks whether remote working is bad for productivity and do companies get more bang for their buck from having workers on site? There is no consensus in the growing body of research on the subject. That, he suggests, might be because the answer depends on who you are, in what job and at what stage in your career.
Pilita Clark has been busy in Baku, covering COP29. She says there are lessons for the corporate world to be gleaned from the event, not least the power of negotiation and the myriad tactics involved.
Finally, the global chief executive of Novo Nordisk, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, in an opinion piece written for The Irish Times, calls on Ireland’s new government after this week’s general election to step up and oppose European Commission plans to reduce patent protection for medicines or risk making itself less attractive for investment from the sector which has been critical to our recent economic success.
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