WATCHDOG SEEKS COURT RULING IN CEMENT INQUIRY - The State's competition watchdog will go to the High Court next month as part of its probe into alleged anti-competitive practices in the cement industry.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) last month seized thousands of documents when it raided the offices of Irish Cement, a subsidiary of CRH, Ireland’s largest listed company. It also visited the offices of several other companies, says the Irish Times. The CCPC will ask the court next month to rule on which of the documents seized it is allowed use to build its case, as some of the material could constitute privileged information, such as legal advice. The watchdog has launched an investigation into whether Irish Cement has abused its dominant position in the market, which the company denies. Irish Cement declined to comment on Wednesday, on foot of the legal moves by the CCPC. The commission last night confirmed it was seeking High Court approval to filter the material it seized from the CRH subsidiary. “When it conducts such searches the commission is entitled to compel the target business to disclose information to it even if the target claims that the information in question contains legally privileged material,” said the CCPC.
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DUBLIN HOTEL FIRM RECORDS LOSS OF €15.5m AFTER LOAN WRITE-OFF - The firm that operates the Regency Hotel in Dublin plunged into the red in 2013 to record losses of €15.5m. The loss by Regan Development, which operates the 240-room hotel, arose from the writing off of €15.89m owed to the firm by a connected company. The accounts show that before the exceptional cost is factored in, the firm's operating profits fell by 68% to €432,985. The directors said sales at the hotel improved by 29% from the prior year due to increases in room and occupancy rates within the Dublin market, says the Irish Independent. The hotel, located in the Whitehall area, is in close proximity to Dublin airport. The report states: "The improved results in the hotel trade mirror market trends within the Dublin area and based on management accounts these positive results are predicted to continue." The firm also operates a supermarket and the directors' report states that "the trading results of the supermarket are predicted to be challenging for the foreseeable future".
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RBS FIASCO CASTS DOUBT ON CITY'S AGEING TECH SYSTEMS IN ERA OF DIGITIAL BANKING - Royal Bank of Scotland faces fresh regulatory scrutiny after a technology glitch caused the disappearance of thousands of customer payments only months after the bank was hit with a record fine for IT failures, says the Financial Times. Some 600,000 customer payments and direct debits went missing on Tuesday after a systems failure that closely resembled the cause of its major IT meltdown in 2012. The latest problems throw doubt on the ability of banks’ archaic technology systems to cope with the increasing number of customer transactions spurred by digital banking. Regulators will undertake a review of RBS’s latest systems failure, which came to light on Wednesday, once the issue affecting customers has been resolved, according to one person familiar with the situation. It is not yet clear whether enforcement action will be taken. The Prudential Regulation Authority said: “We are in contact with RBS regarding their recent IT issue. We will be working closely with RBS as it resolves the problem.” Regulators hit the bank with a record retail fine of £56m last November after more than 6 million customers were affected by a similar issue with its overnight processing systems in 2012.
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WOMEN TO APPEAR FOR FIRST TIME ON NEW $10 NOTE - A woman is to feature on a redesigned $10 note, the US Treasury has said, though it has not been decided who it shall be. The Treasury is introducing the note in 2020 to make it more secure, it has said, however the decision to feature a woman comes after campaigning by activist groups, says the London Independent. US notes currently feature exclusive white, male former political leaders, from George Washington, who has been the face of the one dollar banknote since 1963, to Benjamin Franklin, who has featured on the $100 note since 2009. Woman have featured on US tender before, notably on the unpopular dollar coin. In 1979 a dollar coin was minted with the face of Susan B. Anthony, a campaigner for the women’s vote, but fell out of favour because it looked too much like a quarter. The Treasury tried to correct these problems with a Sacagawea dollar coin in 2000, featuring the face of a native American woman. But the Treasury failed to couple the coin’s introduction with the withdrawal of dollar bills and it never caught on.
