The quiet sell-off of Ireland

In the past two weeks, close to €7 billion of Ireland changed hands. There was very little fuss and very little fanfare. Two financial institutions, Ulster Bank and IBRC, merely off-loaded billions of euro in real estate and commercial loans to international investment funds. It follows a trend for the year: Irish banks have sold non-core loans with a par value of more than €35 billion this year. This staggering figure is inflated ...