The directors of the financially squeezed stockbrokers MMI have continued their efforts to find an investor who will inject sufficient funds to cover the £1 million-£2 million shortfall. Pressure to find an investor will intensify today as the Central Bank will have to decide what action it will take when the one-week freeze on MMI trading without the bank's permission expires tomorrow.

While MMI directors have spoken with some confidence about the prospects of finding a buyer, market sources in Dublin are growing increasingly sceptical about an investor emerging with MMI's financial problems of a scale to frighten off all but the most intrepid investor.

"If time was on MMI's side then they might have a reasonable chance of getting somebody to put money into the business. But I'd say that at best they've got a 50-50 chance of finding an investor," said one market source.

Market sources believe that when MMI was profitable, it would have been an attractive prospect - just as Dolmen found a major German investor. But with many of MMI's biggest private clients either unable or unwilling to pay debts that built up as a result of the rollover system, any buyer of the business would be buying little in the way of assets.

The Central Bank would make no comment yesterday on the situation at the broker and whether it would extend the period where MMI is only permitted to conduct business with the bank's explicit approval. But market sources believe that while the bank is likely to extend that period if it believes that an investor can be found quickly, it is unlikely to be willing to allow the MMI situation continue indefinitely while the broker tries to recover the debts from its clients or finds an investor.

As the regulator for the stockbroking industry, the bank will be acutely aware of the damage that the MMI situation has done to the image and credibility of the industry. It remains to be seen whether the bank will also consider tightening up on the rollover arrangements which are the root cause of MMI's problems

While MMI has insisted that the rollover arrangement - under which clients defer payment for shares purchased on their behalf - is a legitimate way to operate and is widespread throughout the Irish stockbroking industry, other stockbrokers have also insisted that they do not operate the system.

If MMI fails to find an investor in the short-term, then the only alternative is liquidation of the stockbroking subsidiary, with a liquidator left with the job of chasing the clients who have not paid their debts.