IRISH BANKS INCREASE SCRUTINY OF RUSSIAN ACCOUNTS - Major Irish banks have stepped up screening on transfers and transactions with Russian accounts on foot of international sanctions against the Putin regime’s interference in Ukraine.
The development comes amid economic turmoil in Russia, whose central bank moved yesterday in the face of a precipitous decline in the rouble’s value to let the currency float, writes the Irish Times. Irish institutions are now scrutinising all flows of money from Russian sources as “high risk”. Some examinations are said to be on a par with the scrutiny of any transfers involving or suspected to involve North Korea, Iran or Cuba, against whom blanket western sanctions apply. As European and US sanctions against individuals and companies in Russia bite, the aim of the screening is to ensure there is no violation. Transfers between Russia and Ireland are relatively small but one concern is to prevent transfers involving people and corporate entities not covered by sanctions being used as a front by sanctioned parties. This is not held at the moment to be a major concern in the Irish context, although special procedures have still been introduced by banks in Dublin.
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CREDIT UNIONS COMPLAIN NOONAN HAS ONLY NAMED OUTSIDERS TO NEW AGENCY - Credit unions have complained that a body set up to advice the Minister for Finance does not contain anyone from the sector. Instead, it contains an accountant whose practice makes money out of credit unions, an academic and a teacher-trade union official. Credit unions have also complained that the Credit Union Advisory Committee has been limited to just three people, says the Irish Independent. This body advises Finance Minister Michael Noonan on how credit unions are managed and how best to protect the interests of the three million members of the lenders. Mr Noonan announced recently that he had appointed a partner in Grant Thornton, Denise O'Connell, to the advisory committee. Donal McKillop of Queens University, Belfast, was also appointed. Professor McKillop chaired a commission into credit unions for the Government. A former senator and one-time general secretary of the INTO teachers' union, Joe O'Toole, is the third person on the advisory committee. He is a former president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Mr O'Toole was on the McKillop Credit Union Commission and has had a long-standing involvement with the movement.
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GOVERNMENT PLANNING PART PRIVATISATION OF AIB - The Government will release a plan for the part privatisation of AIB as well as the restructuring of the €3.5 billion of preference shares and €1.6 billion of contingent convertible bonds soon after the release of its 2014 results next March, according to market sources. The Government has pumped nearly €21 billion into the 99.8% State-owned bank. It also holds €3.5 billion in preference shares and €1.6 billion in contingent convertible bond notes. One source said the most likely outcome is that the contingent convertible notes will be refinanced through a combination of alternative tier one debt and subordinated debt. The Government is likely to hold on to half of the preference shares and convert the other half into common equity, the source added. A minority stake in the bank of between 25% and 49% will then be floated on the Irish Stock Exchange, says the Irish Examiner. The latest trading update shows the bank continues to improve its operating performance. The net interest margin, a key indicator of profitability, was 1.64% for the first six months of the year, a rise of four basis points on the previous quarter. This was driven by lower funding costs and asset repricing, according to Ciaran Callaghan, an analyst at Merrion Stockbroker.
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OBAMA STRIKES BLOW FOR WEB EQUALITY WITH CALL FOR BANK ON INTERNET 'FAST LANES' - President Barack Obama has urged the US communications regulator to ban so-called internet “fast lanes” and reclassify broadband service as a public utility, sparking outrage among cable and telecoms groups. Mr Obama on Monday weighed in for the first time with specific recommendations for the Federal Communications Commission, which is revising its definition of “net neutrality” - the principle that all internet traffic be treated equally. His intervention follows a flood of opposition to the agency’s proposals, which has prompted about 4 million comments to the FCC on the issue, reports the Financial Times. The heart of the FCC’s proposal would allow ISPs to charge services like YouTube to reach customers at higher speeds, though only on “commercially reasonable” terms. That provision sparked uproar among consumer groups and companies like Netflix. Joining consumer groups and technology companies like Google and Facebook, the president said there should be a ban on paid prioritisation that would technically allow internet service providers to charge content companies like Netflix to reach consumers at higher speeds.
