RABODIRECT TO START OFFERING PENSIONS - Dutch-owned RaboDirect is to enter the pensions market here. The company which operates in Ireland as an internet savings bank, is launching an online PRSA Pension product after a tie up with Zurich Life. For a minimum monthly €10 contribution, RaboDirect is promising cheaper upfront costs, more policy holder control on how where their money is invested.
Roel van Veggel, who is general manager of Dutch bank RaboDirect, says the banks entered the Irish market over four years ago, offering savings and investments. He says that more and more people are taking control of their own finances, and so adding a pension product seems a logical extension of its product range. He says that if the current financial crisis has taught us anything, it is that a person can not rely too much anymore on advisors or even the government. He says RaboDirect is offering information to make the right choices. Mr Van Veggel says the bank is here to stay and points out that RaboDirect is part of the Dutch group which has been in existence for over 110 years.
***
'I ZOO' AS DUBLIN ZOO HOSTS WEDDINGS - Dublin Zoo has come up with a new way of raising cash. It will open its doors for civil weddings. The zoo responded to a request last month from one couple and has decided to develop the idea to generate more income. All monies generated will go back into the zoo which is a not-for-profit organisation. The wedding ceremonies take place at the newly restored Haughton House.
The director of Dublin Zoo Leo Oosterweghel says that Haughton House is right at the very heart of the old zoo, which goes back as far as 1830. He says the room is quite small and has a fire certificate for about 60 or 70 people, so huge weddings can not be catered for. He says the price of each wedding is negotiated 'as the zoo is feeling its way around' but adds that prices are very competitive.
***
MORNING BRIEFS - Responding angrily to IBEC's call for a 12 month pay freeze, SIPTU General President Jack O'Connor said, "IBEC does not seem to have copped on that the game has changed. We are fed up hearing for the last 12 months what is being demanded of workers as a contribution to national recovery.
"What we want to know is what employers' organisation and their constituency are going to contribute, because the wealthy and the people at the top of society have contributed nothing yet."
*** There were some figures on mergers, acquisitions, fundraisings and other deal making in the third quarter of the year published over the weekend. In all, 41 transactions took place in the three months to the end of September compared with 85 in the same three month period last year. The value of deals also shows just how business activity has fallen off. €1.75 billion was the value of the deals done in the third quarter of last year compared to just €466m in the same period this year. The biggest deal in the quarter just gone was the €120m sale by a group of Irish investors of an office property in London.
**** On the currency markets, the euro is worth €1.4635 US cents and 91.41 pence sterling.
