Ireland

Susanne McMenamin, Garret Farrelly and Tara Doyle of Matheson discuss the role of corporate governance in ESG and explain why boardrooms needs to be proactive, prepared and well-informed when it comes to successful ESG reporting

Niamh O’Shea and Ian Conlon of the Maples Group discuss how to overcome the twin difficulties of delays to implementation and lack of transparency and reporting standards for ESG data in the EU

Ian Conlon and Niamh O’Shea of the Maples Group discuss the delay to implement the ESG regulations and the impact this has had on asset managers

Matheson partners Julie Murphy-O'Connor and Tara Doyle discuss work-life balance, the firm's commitment to diversity and inclusion and provide useful advice on how to develop

The Court of Appeal's decision in Bank of Ireland v Eteams (International) brings further important legal clarity for all forms of receivables finance transactions, as well as the 'true sale' opinions given by lawyers in the context of such deals.

On January 21 2019, the Irish Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Act 2018 (Act) came into force. This Act radically alters the operation of the secondary acquisition, ownership and servicing of performing and non-performing Irish consumer loans, and certain small and medium enterprise (SME) loans (together, Relevant Loans).

Anna Biala, Peter Chapman, Jack Hardman and Jennifer Mbaluto from Clifford Chance’s global fintech group take a bird’s eye view of fintech developments across EMEA and how regulators are responding

The Irish legislature is considering draft legislation which would regulate purchasers of non-performing loans (NPLs). The draft legislation is at an advanced stage in the parliamentary process. While credit servicers are regulated in Ireland, credit owners (in the main, entities that have purchased loans and loan portfolios from banks looking to reduce their exposure to NPLs) are not. However, the regulation of owners of credit would be a substantial extension of the regime. Furthermore, it would run contrary to EU policy in this area which proposes to regulate credit servicers (as is the existing position in Ireland) but deliberately stops short of regulating loan owners because such an extension is neither necessary nor desirable.

The Irish Court of Appeal recently handed down an important decision which will impact default interest provisions in Irish law loan agreements. In Sheehan v Breccia/Flynn and Benray v Breccia, the court considered whether a provision for default interest in a bank's standard terms and conditions should be struck down as a penalty. This is a highly technical question, but one which is important for banks and borrowers, and for other market operators.