News

The euro fell below $1.06 for the first time in five years against a broadly strong US dollar today amid rising concerns around energy safety and growth slowdown in China and Europe. The euro slipped to a five-year low of $1.05890 after Russia’s Gazprom said it would cut gas supply to Poland and Bulgaria. The…

Bank of Ireland said it has made a positive start to 2022 with its income, costs and capital all performing in line with expectations. In an interim management statement, Bank of Ireland said that customer loan volumes were lower at €75.2 billion at the end of March compared to €76.3 billion at the end of…

Outgoing Bank of Ireland chief executive Francesca McDonagh is to take up a new job at Swiss bank Credit Suisse. Ms McDonagh will take up the role of CEO of the Europe, Middle East and Africa region of Credit Suisse by October. Bank of Ireland confirmed yesterday that Ms McDonagh would be stepping down from…

Irish foreign exchange technology firm Assure Hedge is launching a service which it describes as aiming to ‘bring hedging to everyone’. Hedging is a method – deployed by businesses usually – to protect against future changes in currency exchange rates, whether expected or unexpected. Research indicates that while 80% of large companies with currency risks…

Associated British Foods has today reported a near doubling in first-half profit but said its Primark clothing business would have to raise prices because of the severe inflationary pressures it was facing. The group said today that inflationary pressures were such that it is unable to offset them all with cost savings, and so Primark…

Elon Musk’s $44 billion deal to buy Twitter has attracted massive attention around the world. Here at home, the latest developments are no doubt being watched closely by the company’s Irish staff. The social media platform employs more than 500 people at its European Headquarters in Dublin. What will the change of ownership mean for…

Business group Ibec has scaled back its outlook for growth for this year to account for the economic impact of rising costs and supply chain challenges, exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The group estimates that the war will knock somewhere between 1 and 2 percentage points off the rate of growth relative to…

EU member states, the European Commission, and the European Parliament have reached agreement on new rules requiring large tech companies to do more to police illegal content on their platforms and to pay a fee to regulators monitoring their compliance. The agreement came after more than 16 hours of negotiations. The Digital Services Act (DSA)…

The dramatic increase in energy prices in recent months has brought sharp focus to the need for businesses to cut their usage – fast. The biggest changes generally require a significant up-front outlay – something that may take years to see a return on. Against a backdrop of rising costs across-the-board, and growing uncertainty about…

New figures from the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation suggests that the sector continued to recover in March – traditionally the period that kick-starts the tourism season with the Saint Patrick’s Festival. The Irish Tourism Industry Confederation’s Tourism Dashboard is published in association with AIB and compares each month to the same month in 2019, the…