25 March 2011, 17:53  ECB banking agreement critical

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said that once the results of the bank stress tests are known next Thursday, the question of whether or not losses should be imposed on senior bondholders should become clearer. When asked if he would rule out the question of losses being imposed on senior bondholders, Mr Kenny said he had always argued that there were different categories of bondholders. He said no more money should be committed until the extent of the liability was known. At the end of a two-day summit Mr Kenny said he had reached agreement that the implications of Ireland's stress tests would be dealt with at finance ministers' level. When asked if the Government was shifting the emphasis away from the question of a reduction in the bail-out interest rate and on to the banking sector, Mr Kenny said the package needs to be adjusted for both. He said ECB agreement was critical to securing medium to long term funding for the Irish banking sector, He added that the ECB had now accepted that it was not prudent to have a firesale of banking assets as part of the EU-IMF programme. The Taoiseach's comments came as the Governor of the Central Bank and the chief executives of the country's main banks were meeting in Dublin ahead of the stress tests that are to be carried out on the financial institutions next week.

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