Banks v Revolut, low take up for Covid supports, and affordable housing scheme

Business Today: the best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk

Will the State’s new Affordable Purchase Shared Equity scheme work? Fiona Reddan looks at the scheme in her weekly personal finance feature. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times

AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB and the Irish arm of Belgian bank KBC have come together to set up Syntech Payments, a joint venture company to launch an digital payments app that they hope will help them fend off the threat posed by new payments platforms, such as Revolut. Mark Paul reports.

The Government's main cash support for small businesses impacted by Covid-19 - called CRSS - has had a lower-than-expected take-up and is costing the State significantly less than was originally set aside for the scheme, writes Eoin Burke-Kennedy.

The State's mortgage-to-rent scheme has been "irrevocably undermined" by the entry of a commercial player, which is outbidding the not-for-profit agencies for the properties involved, according to a submission to Government by mortgage arrears consumer advocate David Hall. Eoin Burke-Kennedy has the details.

The cost of holding cash has led Linked Finance, one of Ireland's largest peer-to-peer lenders, to start charging lenders on its platform a fee for failing to invest all of their funds. Fiona Reddan has the details.

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Corporate America has begun to cut its ties to President Donald Trump after he was seen to egg on an angry mob as they marched in Washington DC last week. Cantillon explains the reasons why businesses have finally turned their back on the US President as he nears the end of a divisive four-year term.

Will the State's new Affordable Purchase Shared Equity scheme work? Fiona Reddan has the answer in her weekly personal finance feature.

In Q&A, a reader has been shut out of their stepmother's will and wonders what, if anything, they can do. Dominic Coyle offers his view on this tricky family issue.

In media and marketing, Laura Slattery says it was old-school TV journalism that best captured the chaos inside the US Capitol last week an an angry mob took ran amok in Washington DC.

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Ciarán Hancock

Ciarán Hancock

Ciarán Hancock is Business Editor of The Irish Times