Minister for Finance challenges non-bank lenders over high mortgage interest rates

Minister Michael McGrath has challenged nonbank lenders controlling around 14 per cent of all Irish mortgages and over half of those in arrears about the interest rates they are charging on mortgages. The Business Post reports that he has also written to Central Bank governor Gabriel Makhlouf expressing concern about the scale of rate rise being forced on homeowners by companies like Pepper Finance and Mars Capital and their inability to move lender

It comes as so-called vulture funds line up to bid for €1.5 billion of soured loans at Ulster Bank, according to the Sunday Times, which names Cerberus, CarVal, Apollo and Lone Star among the leading contenders for the portfolio of distressed borrowings, most of which relate to family homes or buy to let properties.

Naming and shaming, a key strand in the Revenue Commissioners efforts to encourage tax compliance may have to change in light of a recent European Court of Human Rights ruling that said Hungarian tax authorities breached a businessman’s privacy by including his name and home address on a defaulters list, the Business Post reports. The court, whose rulings Ireland has signed up to honour, said the move was capable of making the man feel “shame” and “humiliation”. That, of course, was always the intent but the court ruled it was a breach of his right to privacy.

The Sunday Independent reports that Irish Airbnb listings have slumped since the start of the pandemic with average monthly listings down 29 per cent and a more dramatic 52 per cent slump in cities, according to figures compiled by AirDNA, a short-term analytics provider. It comes as authorities in Ireland and Europe are looking at tightening rules on short-term lets.

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The Post also reports that Apple and Microsoft between them account for around one-third of Ireland’s corporate tax take – or around €7 billion- following an assessment by the paper of recent corporate filings and tax data. It also reports that the looming increase in business tax to 15 per cent on large companies could bring a further €3 billion to €4 billion into State coffers, equal to the entire corporation tax take a decade ago.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times says that private equity money from the UK is “flooding into Ireland” on the back of its robust economy and thriving tech and pharma sectors, whose companies are attracting the bulk of the private equity interest even as recent data show a decline in M&A activity.

And the Post writes that a Florida bankruptcy court has asked Irish businessman Illann Power why he failed to disclose to it the existence of an “eight-figure sum” trust fund to which he reportedly referred in an interview with the newspaper.

Ryanair is facing allegations in a US court that it made defamatory statements in emails sent to customers to discourage them from using travel search websites such as Booking.com, the Sunday Independent writes. The allegations are part of a counterclaim by Booking.com to an initial action by the Irish airline in a Delaware court over allegedly illegal website scraping.

Finally, activist investor Vison Capital is seeking support from Ires Reit founder Capreit for changes that would see Ireland’s largest residential landlord taken private, the Sunday Times reports. Vision Capital’s Jeffrey Olin blames Ires Reit management for the company’s current unloved status, claiming they should have foreseen the risk of rising borrowing costs.