RECEIVER TAKES OVER FORMER BoI BASE - The Irish Independent reports that a receiver took control of the former Bank of Ireland headquarters building on Baggot Street in Dublin yesterday.
The paper says the move sparked renewed hopes that social network giant Facebook may take over the distinctive building as it expands here.
The high-profile 1960s offices were bought for €200m by a consortium led by Derek Quinlan at the height of the boom in 2006. The Indo says that Kieran Wallace of KMPG took charge of the building yesterday on behalf of Bank of Scotland (Ireland), Danske Bank and Rabobank.
The paper says vast office block was built between 1968 and 1978 in a stark modernist style that makes it one of the most distinctive buildings in Dublin.
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IMF PRESSING ECB ON ITS GREEK BONDS - The Financial Times reports that the International Monetary Fund has turned up pressure on European officials to take on more of the burden of filling a widening gap in Greece's budget by pressing the European Central Bank to take a hit on its €40 billion in Greek bond holdings.
The paper says the ECB bought the bonds at below face value as part of a programme to prevent the collapse of Greek debt markets in 2010. It has also been accepting Greek bonds as collateral for cheap loans to teetering Greek banks.
The FT says the bonds, with estimated yields in excess of 7%, will provide a big return if Greece does not default and they are held to maturity.
It quotes an IMF official as denying that it was pushing any specific action on the ECB, including writing down the value of its debt or reinvesting the profits made from the bonds back into Greece. But euro zone officials involved in the discussions said the pressure to earmark potential gains to fill Greece's financing hole was being fiercely resisted by the ECB.
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STATE'S FEES FOR ARTHUR COX RISE TO €15m - The Irish Times reports that new figures supplied by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan show that paid by the State to the law firm Arthur Cox for advice on the banking crisis have risen to almost €15m.
Mr Noonan said that the practice, which has given legal advice to the Government on the crisis since September 2008, was paid €1.3m by the Department of Finance last year in addition to €1.6m in 2008, €5.9m in 2009 and €4.8m in 2010.
The paper says the law firm was paid a further €1.25m by the State's National Pension Reserve Fund Commission for legal services relating to due diligence on AIB before the Government injected €3.5 billion into the bank through the fund.
Mr Noonan said the National Treasury Management Agency continued to pay professional fees to Arthur Cox incurred by the "shareholding management unit" of the NTMA's banking unit after it was transferred to his department in August 2011 until the end of last year.
The new figures on the legal fees were disclosed in response to a parliamentary question tabled by Fianna Fáil's finance spokesman Michael McGrath TD.
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DOLMEN EXPECTING A RETURN TO PROFIT - The Irish Examiner reports on accounts just lodged with the Companies Office, which show that Dolmen Stockbrokers made a pre-tax loss of just under €2.5m in 2010, but the firm expects its 2011 accounts to show a return to profitability.
The paper says that while the Dublin-headquartered stockbroking firm actually managed to lower its operating losses, by 35%, to €1.66m from €2.54m, once-off costs relating to a restructuring of the business, along with various other charges resulted in the €2.49m pre-tax loss. This was up from a pre-tax loss of €2.4m in 2009.
Dolmen's management has attributed the 2010 loss to the difficult trading conditions experienced in global markets.
In the associated notes to the accounts, Dolmen's management said that it is "satisfied" with turnover and profitability levels arising from its existing business and new business initiatives. It expects its 2011 accounts to show that the company returned to profit last year.
