DUBLIN HOSTING ETHICS CONFERENCE TODAY - Today will see the inaugural national governance ethics and compliance forum in Croke Park.
The forum will look at issues of ethics and integrity in business in Ireland and abroad and will hear from Paul Moxey, the head of Risk Management & Corporate Governance at ACCA, Professor Niamh Brennan from UCD and John Devitt from Transparency International Ireland
Julian Clarke, the chairman of European Business Ethics Network Ireland and a chartered accountant, will also address the forum. He reassures that the vast majority of businesses conduct their affairs with integrity and with a good level of trust. He says that ethics should not be governed by regulation but rather by common sense. He says that as a company builds up trust with a customer, more business is developed. Quoting an example of banks overcharging, he says that while they made a bit of extra money in the short-term, their reputations suffered greatly. On whistle blowers, he says that the long promised legislation will be covered by up to 40 separate pieces of legislation in Ireland as opposed to one clear piece of legislation in the UK. He says he fears the 'itty-bitty'' legislation will fail to protect people properly and says he favours the UK approach.
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MORNING BRIEFS - The euro is trading at $1.2476 against the dollar and 0.799 pence sterling having fallen to a two year low in Asian trade early this morning as the ECB rejected an unorthodox Spanish plan to recapitalise Bankia by injecting €19 billion of sovereign bonds into its parent company. This could then have been swapped for cash at the ECB's three-month refinancing window, avoiding the need to raise the money on bond markets. The Governor of the Bank of Spain has announced he is stepping down one month early and this morning the Financial Times in an editorial warns Spain not to go down the Irish route of mixing sovereign debt with bank debt.
*** Bank of Ireland is to refund €1m to 1,500 customers after an internal review discovered they had taken out insurance with credit cards they could not claim on. Revealed on The Consumer Show last night the payment comes to an average of around €660 per customer. The Bankers Federation say that they do not comment on individual cases but that they will look at any industry wide impact from the Central Bank investigation.
*** Announcements by IDA Ireland today will see the creation of 100 jobs in four companies and two other companies establishing European and EMEA headquarters in Dublin. 30 jobs will be created in Cork by Red 5 studios, an online games developer, with the balance of the jobs based in Dublin. 30 jobs will come on line in Aasonn - a HR and technology company - 25 jobs will be created by Van Tibolli Beauty Corporation, a provider of hair products and a further 15 jobs in Quvalu Inc, a web research company.
