Who would invest in Ireland’s financial sector? Two of the State’s largest retail banks are discontinuing their Irish operations and two more are majority owned by the taxpayer. Dwindling market competition should appeal to foreign entrants, particularly since Ireland’s mortgage rates remain the second highest in the eurozone after Greece. But foreign banks continue to be deterred by high capital requirements, elevated operating costs, byzantine repossession processes and a complex and overly intrusive regulatory system. Irish senior bankers and financial services executives are not especially popular with politicians or the public. The UK spent £137 billion of taxpayer funds on…

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