Seen & heard: Ulster Bank’s soured loans; Threat to Revenue ‘name and shame’ policy; And slump in AirBnB listings in Irish citiesMinister for Finance Michael McGrath has challenged lenders dealing with majority of State's mortgages in arrears over interest rates being charged. Photograph: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.
It comes as so-called vulture funds line up to bid for €1.5 billion of soured loans at Ulster Bank, according to the Sunday Times, which names Cerberus, CarVal, Apollo and Lone Star among the leading contenders for the portfolio of distressed borrowings, most of which relate to family homes or buy to let properties.
Naming and shaming, a key strand in the Revenue Commissioners efforts to encourage tax compliance may have to change in light of a recent European Court of Human Rights ruling that said Hungarian tax authorities breached a businessman’s privacy by including his name and home address on a defaulters list, the Business Post reports. The court, whose rulings Ireland has signed up to honour, said the move was capable of making the man feel “shame” and “humiliation”.
The Sunday Independent reports that Irish Airbnb listings have slumped since the start of the pandemic with average monthly listings down 29 per cent and a more dramatic 52 per cent slump in cities, according to figures compiled by AirDNA, a short-term analytics provider. It comes as authorities in Ireland and Europe are looking at tightening rules on short-term lets.