EU-US DATA TRANSFER TALKS STILL DEADLOCKED - EU and US officials remained locked in negotiations yesterday in a bid to seek agreement on a new data transfer deal, after a January 31st deadline on a new framework for transatlantic data transfers passed without agreement.
Almost four months after the European Court of Justice deemed the Safe Harbour agreement governing data transfer between the EU and US invalid, negotiators on both sides of the Atlantic have been trying to hammer out a deal. But despite intensive talks over the past few weeks and through the weekend, negotiators failed to reach agreement, writes the Irish Times. EU sources said that the main obstacle was the issue of US intelligence services’ access to data relating to European Union citizens which has been transferred to US companies. Irish officials have intensified contacts with the European Commission and the US over the last few days. Minister for Data Protection Dara Murphy travelled to Brussels last Wednesday for talks with US ambassador Anthony Gardner on the issue, and was in contact with the US embassy in Dublin throughout the day yesterday.
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NTMA SET TO TAKE 25-YEAR LEASE ON NEW CITY OFFICES - The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) plans to take a 25-year lease on its proposed new six-floor office in Dublin's docklands.
An architect and design team are being sought to work on the new 8,000 sq metre office space, which the debt management agency hopes to move into in late 2018. The site, known as Block D1, is part of the so-called Project Wave development on Dublin's North Wall Quay, close to the new Central Bank headquarters, writes the Irish Independent. It's located within the area designated as the North Lotts and Grand Canal Quay Strategic Development Zone. The premises is expected to include an open-plan office space, cellular offices, meeting rooms, a training area, reception area, canteen, storage areas, services areas, toilets and ancillary office accommodation areas. The NTMA, which manages the national debt, the State Claims Agency, NewERA, the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), and the National Development Finance Agency, is looking for an architect-led integrated design team, including a quantity surveyor, a civil/structural engineer, and a building services engineer.
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IRISH BANK OFFICIALS' ASSOCIATION PUTS TOP BANKERS' PAY ON AGENDA - The head of the Irish Bank Officials’ Association - the IBOA - has put the issue of top bankers’ pay back on the agenda demanding that the Government retain its cap on chief executives’ pay and introduce new limits for share incentives as it sells down its stakes in the banks.
It comes as the IBOA - which represents 15,000 finance staff across Ireland, which compares with a peak of 23,000 on the eve of the crash - is due to complete pay negotiations with Bank of Ireland this week and with Ulster Bank next week. General secretary Larry Broderick told the Irish Examiner there was growing concern that chief executives at State-owned banks would again top excessive amounts in pay and in share-based incentives as the Government starts to sell down shares later this year. Pay caps would need to be extended even as the Government launches its first IPOs of bank shares, while some sort of correlation needs to be established linking pay across all staff in the banks.
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PUTIN LINES UP SELL-OFFS AS OIL PLUNGE SPARKS CASH CRUNCH - Russia is lining up seven major state companies, including Aeroflot, Alrosa, the diamond miner, and Rosneft, for potential privatisation as the Kremlin debates drastic options to replace dwindling oil revenues.
The decision to consider the first such comprehensive push in years comes as the latest slide in crude prices is expected to drive Russia into a second year of recession and has ripped a gaping hole in its budget, says the Financial Times. Moscow has continuously sold small state company stakes over the years, but progress has slowed since Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency in 2012. Memories of the privatisation wave with which Russia’s liberal economic policymakers tried to force a transition from the Soviet economy in the 1990s remain traumatic as it vastly enriched a small number of people, creating the country’s oligarch class. The heads of Alrosa, Rosneft and fellow oil company Bashneft, Russian Railways, state bank VTB, Aeroflot and Russia’s largest shipbuilding company Sovcomflot were summoned on Monday to a meeting where Mr Putin discussed privatisation plans for this year with his economic team.
