Out of Office: PTSB incomes and RTÉ outgoings

Welcome to the Business Post’s Out of Office, your round-up of the day’s business, tech, markets, legal and politics news.

In another busy week of company updates, PTSB kick-started Wednesday morning reporting a 10 per cent increase in net income interest, despite its retreating share in the mortgage market.

Announcing a first quarter trading update, the bank said it had won just over 13 per cent of all new mortgage business in Ireland in the first quarter - down from just over 15 per cent in the same period last year.

Record interest rates, however, seem to have counteracted this drop, with the lender’s total operating income up 9 per cent year-on-year to €167 million.

In other banking news, the UK row over proposed “name and shame” rules in the financial services sector rumbled into a new day, with the British financial regulator telling MPs that the planned measures would not dampen competitiveness in the City should they come into force.

Our London correspondent Dominic McGrath, who has been covering the dispute, sat down with Mick McAteer, the Derry man who formerly served on the board of the Financial Conduct Authority and described industry concerns as “nonsense”.

Back in Ireland, the minister of finance has warned the state’s economy is at risk as windfall tax looks to be “levelling off”.

Michael McGrath has said there are “vulnerabilities in our public finances”, highlighting that just under half of the entire corporation tax this year was ‘windfall’.

The exits of both Richard Collins and Rory Coveney from RTÉ cost the national broadcaster €700,000 last year. Killian Woods has the story.

Catherine Doyle, formerly of Dell, has been named Microsoft’s new general manager for Ireland.

In the courts, a reckless trading case taken by the liquidator of a collapsed meat processing business in Donegal has been settled over halfway through a six week hearing, the High Court has heard.

Education made headlines across the board on Wednesday, with Donal MacNamee reporting that senior officials at the University of Limerick who challenged the college’s controversial €12 million purchase of 20 houses were subsequently excluded from involvement in the deal.

And finally, as Trinity College students have called a halt to their encampment and blockade after the university agreed to divest from all Israeli companies and institutes, Kathleen Gallagher examines Trinity’s endowment fund, and how it compares to US institutions who are also under pressure over links to Israel.

Thanks for reading!

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