Full coverage: Banking

Former minister and MEP Brian Hayes has bowed out of politics, preferring a new challenge as chief executive of the Irish Banking and Payments Federation. He talks about his transition to the private sector, fintech, the future of Irish banking and the long shadow cast by the recession.

The comments by the head of KBC Bank Ireland’s Belgian parent on tracker mortgages highlighted yet again the lack of cultural change at the upper echelons of banking. Indeed, the actions of the banks give lie to the chatter of cultural rehabilitation.

The financial performance of the Irish banks has been abysmal. Not for the lack of profit margins, but due to strategic decisions to withdraw from lending in the potential growth segments of the domestic and European economies.

This week, Prepaid Financial Services announced it is to be sold to Australia’s EML Payments for up to €327 million. Sean Keyes met with the founders Noel Moran and his wife Valerie, who started the company in 2007 and could walk away with €266 million.

The populist noise surrounding so-called cuckoo funds is merely deflecting attention away from the aggressive tactics being deployed by old-fashioned vulture funds. They are gaming the system, and the state continues blindly selling to them.

A new flurry of legal proceedings shows Cabot Financial is not finished pursuing borrowers in portfolios it has acquired from, or services on behalf of Irish banks. But who are the vultures operating off Dublin’s Belgard road?

It’s still undoing mistakes and retreating from bad markets. And its profitability is still being dragged down by tough capital requirements. But in Ireland, it has a chance of success.