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KBC Bank said it will look at buying bank or insurance businesses here after taking a decision to remain in the Irish market.
Ulster Bank and Permanent TSB have long been tipped as potential tie-up partners for KBC Ireland. A merger with one or both would add scale to the business here, which is dwarfed by AIB and Bank of Ireland.

Alternatively, a takeover of an insurance provider such as FBD, the country’s only stand alone insurer, could replicate the bank-assure model of KBC’S parent.

KBC Group ceo Johan Thijs said no deals are imminent but acquisitions will be looked at carefully, on a call with investors.

“If the opportunity arises (to buy an Irish bank or insurance business) we will do our homework,” he said.

The Belgian owned bank confirmed its “long term commitment” to Ireland this morning following a strategic review of its Irish activities.

Weeks of intensive speculation about its future had weighed on its 1,000 employees.

The results of a strategic review of KBC Group’s Irish activities were announced this morning as it revealed its quarter 4 and full financial results for last year.

KBC Bank Ireland reported a net profit of €227m for the year, after tax and impairment, up from €75m in 2015.

The bank reported some 20,000 new customers in the last three months of 2016, bringing to 70,000 the total added in 2016.

The bank also reported a “continued momentum” in reducing the number of its mortgage arrears cases.

Commenting on the financial results and 2017 outlook, Wim Verbraeken, Chief Executive of KBC Bank Ireland said he was pleased to report on “a very successful 2016”.

“I also welcome KBC Group’s decision to commit to the future of the Irish business and our customers here by making Ireland one of its core markets,” said Mr Verbraeken.

“Today’s announcement is fantastic news for KBC customers and staff, and will result in more competition in Irish banking and better choice for customers. KBC has been here for over 40 years, we’ve invested heavily through the recent challenging period, built a strong and compelling retail bank, and are looking forward to becoming the main challenger bank here.”

Mr Verbraeken told Newstalk Breakfast that he believes KBC can grow “organically”.

“Our first priority is to grow our business organically.

“We’re not concerned at all about the loan performance. We’ve put implementations in place to help customers who are in distress and deal with their problems and in the vast majority of cases, we find a way out. I invite customers who are in distress to engage with us.”

Johan Thijs, KBC Group CEO, said KBC Bank Ireland will be the “customer-centric bank of the future where digitalisation will support a great customer experience”.

“The Bank managed to return to profitability as soon as 2015, earlier than we had anticipated and on the back of the encouraging turnaround they achieved strong results for financial year 201,” said Mr Thijs.

“We believe Ireland is a sound and attractive market which presents opportunities and in which we wish to play a more active role. It provides diversification to our operations in Western and Central Europe.

“Going forward, Ireland will be a core market in which KBC will continue to invest. The Bank will be a frontrunner in the digital transformation of the KBC Group where digital solutions will be tested for further group-wide roll-out. We believe we have the people in Ireland with the right skills, the energy and determination to do this and we are ready to support them. In the medium and long-term this customer-centric approach will result in a sustainable future-proof business model and financial results for KBC Bank Ireland, to the benefit of its customers, staff and all other stakeholders.”

The Minister for Finance Michael Noonan welcomed the announcement.

“This is another strong sign of the recovery in Ireland and shows confidence by KBC Ireland in the Irish economy.”

“The fact that KBC is committed to remaining in Ireland ensures continuing competition in the Irish banking market which is good for consumers. Such commitment is also a mark of the robust market and of its continuing growth potential into the future.”

Minister Noonan will be meeting with senior officials of the bank this afternoon and looks forward to hearing in more detail about their future plans to support customers in this growing area of the Irish economy.
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Former CRH chief executive Myles Lee is joining the board of UDG Healthcare as a non-executive director. He’ll take up the role in April.

It’s the third directorship Mr Lee has taken at a stockmarket-listed company since he retired from CRH in December 2013.

In 2015, he joined the board of global firm Ingersoll Rand, whose brands and products include Thermo King, industrial pumping systems, and electric golf buggies.

He is also a non-executive director of FTSE-100 group Babcock International, which he also joined in 2015.

In a trading statement, UDG said that its operating profits in the first quarter of its financial year were “well ahead” of the corresponding quarter last year and has maintained its full-year guidance.

The company held its annual general meeting yesterday.

It added that the performance in the quarter to the end of December was driven by “good underlying growth” coupled with the positive impact of acquisitions.

UDG Healthcare’s activities span sales, marketing and medical communications outsourcing, and drug packaging.

Its largest division – Ashfield – provides outsourced services including sales, marketing and patient engagement to drug companies.

The company, whose chief executive is Brendan McAtamney, said that Ashfield continued to perform well, with underlying profit ahead of the previous first quarter period.

Its Sharp packaging division delivered operating profits that were “moderately ahead” in the first quarter, following a strong comparable quarter in the previous financial year.

Based on the group’s trading performance during the first quarter of the financial year, UDG said its expects constant currency adjusted diluted earnings per share for the year to September 30, 2017 to be between 13pc and 16pc ahead of last year’s figure.

UDG will report in dollars from this year.
Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

THE EU faces a crisis that threatens the sustainability of the eurozone after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that Greece’s debts are on an “explosive” path despite years of austerity measures and economic reforms.

Global financiers at the IMF are increasingly unwilling to fund endless bailouts for the eurozone’s most troubled country, passing more of the burden on to the EU at a time when Germany does not want to keep sending cash to Athens.

The assessment opens up a fresh split with Europe over how to handle Greece’s massive public debts.

The IMF called on Europe to provide “significant debt relief” to the country despite Greece’s EU creditors previously ruling out any further rescue programme until the current one expires in 2018.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Eurogroup president, repeated that position last night, saying there would be no Greek debt pardon and dismissing the IMF assessment of the country’s growth prospects as overly pessimistic.

“It’s surprising because Greece is already doing better than that report describes,” Mr Dijsselbloem, who chairs meetings of eurozone finance ministers said, adding that Greece was on track for a “pretty good recovery at the moment”.

Questions

The renewed divisions over how to handle the Greek debt crisis have raised fresh questions over whether the IMF will be a full participant in the next phase of the Greek rescue – a key condition for backing from the German and Dutch parliaments.

As Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, fights a tough re-election battle, Germany is particularly reluctant to send funds directly to Greece, with populist parties arguing that the payments amount to an unfair bailout from hard-working Germans to less deserving Greeks.

The IMF split came as British Prime Minister Theresa May last night comfortably defeated a Brexit rebellion in the Commons after MPs rejected Labour plans to give parliament a “meaningful” vote on the terms of a final deal.
Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

Almost a fifth of wholesale finance activity within the European Union could shift to Ireland after Brexit, a Brussels-based think tank has projected.

It would make this country a major European financial power house.

London currently dominates the sector, which includes large-scale banking for other banks, large corporations and finance houses.

The Bruegel think tank said 2pc of the EU’s wholesale activity is currently here, versus 90pc in the UK, but this share could increase to up to 15pc or 18pc once it leaves the EU.

The report estimates that around €1.8 trillion of UK banking assets will be on the move following Brexit.

About 35pc of London wholesale banking currently relates to clients in the other 27 EU member states. That varies from about a fifth for UK-headquartered banks, to a third for US and half for EU banks. “Thus, about €1.8 trillion, or 17pc, of all UK banking assets might be on the move as a direct consequence of Brexit,” the report states.

It also claimed that about 10,000 banking jobs and 20,000 related professional services roles could be up for grabs by other EU capitals as a result, with Dublin, Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam among the cities listed. However it also notes that other cities, including Brussels, Luxembourg, Warsaw, Milan and Vienna could also feature.

The report presents two scenarios for capital markets services in the wake of Brexit – an integrated wholesale market, or one that fragments along national lines.

“In both scenarios, the UK’s share of the total European wholesale market drops from 90pc to 60pc because of Brexit,” it notes.

“The starting point is that financial firms with a MiFID passport can serve EU27 clients from anywhere in the EU27, just as they currently do from London.”
The report, co-authored by André Sapir, Dirk Schoenmaker and Nicolas Véron, stated that in the fragmented case, Frankfurt, given the fact that it already hosts the biggest European operations of the US investment banks outside of London, and is home to the European Central Bank, will become the main centre with 45pc of the EU27 wholesale market.

Paris, which is home to the European Securities and Markets Authority and several large banks, may cover 20pc, and Dublin and Amsterdam might cover 15pc and 10pc respectively.

In the scenario that assumes integration, there is less need for all activities in one location, therefore the industry could be more geographically spread across the bloc.

In this case, 35pc of wholesale finance would be in Frankfurt, 12 to 20pc in Amsterdam, Dublin and Paris each, with Dublin getting 18pc.

“The fact that several countries are vying to attract business from London suggests that they hope to reap the benefits from having larger financial sectors, not least in the form of additional tax revenue,” the report noted.

“At the same time, countries with larger financial sectors face higher potential costs associated with potential public expenditure in case of financial turmoil. These potential costs would be shared by all euro-area countries in a full banking union, but not in an incomplete banking union, as is currently the case.

“It will be a challenge to keep a sense of the balance between the benefits and potential costs across euro-area countries.”

The report comes a day after a senior French politician on a visit to London to poach bankers, warned Britain will lose crucial financial access rights to the EU. Valerie Pecresse, president of Ile-de-France, said Brexit is opening up “fierce competition” between Europe’s capital cities vying to take business from the City.
Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

European stocks drifted lower on Monday as investors turned cautious on the region’s assets, including bonds and the euro, as their focus shifted to potential political risks.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.7pc at the close, with 18 of 19 sectors lower. The benchmark index, which has moved mostly sideways this year, is up just 0.05pc in 2017, lagging a 2.4pc gain in the S&P 500 Index.

In Dublin, the Iseq index fell 1.11pc to 6,438.62. Ryanair was down after reporting a drop in profits on the back of a tougher operating environment, falling 3.75pc by late afternoon to €14.2150 a share.

The softer tone generally reflected nervousness, including around prospective French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who unveiled a manifesto pledge to take the country out of the euro should she win. The Euro Stoxx 50, a gauge of euro-area shares, slid 1.1pc, crossing below its 50-day moving average for the first time since early December.

On the bond market, the yield spread between France and Germany’s 10-year bonds widened to its greatest since 2012.

In Italy, where equity markets are seen as among the most risky in Europe due mostly to its fragile banking sector, stocks underperformed.

The FTSE MIB fell 2.2pc. France’s CAC 40 index dropped 1pc in its largest decline in a week.

ECB President Mario Draghi said the euro-region economy and inflation still aren’t strong enough to allow for a withdrawal of monetary stimulus, in testimony at the European Parliament.

Shares in car manufacturers across Europe underperformed, with the sector index falling 1.4pc after Bank of America Merrill Lynch strategists downgraded the sector, noting structural challenges.
Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

Pre-tax profits at the Irish arm of online security firm Symantec last year decreased by 36pc to €16m.

New figures show that Symantec Ltd sustained the drop in pre-tax profits after revenues decreased by 18pc, going from €1.6bn to €1.32bn in the 12 months to the end of April 1 last.

The drop in revenues arose from the Symantec Corporation selling on its information management business, known as Veritas, to the Carlyle Group.

Revenues from this part of Symantec Ltd’s business accounted for €233m of revenues, compared to €400m in 2015.

Numbers employed at the firm’s Irish operation last year decreased from 987 to 893, with staff costs going down from €83.1m to €73.7m.

In July 2013, Symantec announced a further 400 jobs for its Irish base through establishing a new European Customer Management Centre at Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, creating up to 200 jobs in 2013, and a further 200 positions being created over the following two years.

The most recent jobs’ boost came 23 years after Symantec established its base at Blanchardstown, which has been home to a security operations centre, as well as operations in business authentication, software development and testing.

Remuneration for the firm’s directors last year increased from €447,000 to €473,000.

The company’s workforce was last year made up of 518 in sales, marketing and administration with 375 in development and support.

Accumulated profits stood at €236m last year.
Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

Almost 15,000 new homes were completed last year, the largest number since 2009.

New figures to be published by the Department of Housing today will show that while the construction industry is slowly getting back to business, the market is still a long way off what is considered normal.

The second quarterly report of the Government’s housing strategy, ‘Rebuilding Ireland’, shows that 14,932 new homes were completed during 2016, an increase of 18pc on the previous year. However, it is estimated that around 25,000 units are needed every year to restore the market to a healthy level.

Of the homes completed in 2016, some 6,289 were in the Greater Dublin area and 8,643 across the rest of the country.

Planning permission was granted for more than 16,000 new homes in the year to end September 2016, an increase of 45pc on the preceding 12 months.

And 21 local authorities have applied for funding under the €200m Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF), seeking to open up more of the 17,434 hectares of land for development that the planning process has identified nationally for housing, 2,654 hectares of which are in Dublin.

These applications, which have identified 74 separate projects, are being assessed with a view to making funding decisions in March.

The report notes that, while there is “an encouraging trend”, the figures also underline “the continuing challenge that faces the State, housing providers, funding institutions and all other relevant stakeholders in terms of adding to the momentum now in evidence so that housing delivery reaches the target level of 25,000 homes per annum in the shortest possible timeframe”.

In 2006, developers built more than 93,000 units but this figure had plummeted to just 14,602 by 2009.

The report notes that there has been an increase in the overall number of people experiencing homelessness, since the launch of Rebuilding Ireland.

But it says this is “an on-going reminder of the imperative for action”.

The number of people who are in State-funded emergency accommodation overseen by housing authorities in December was 4,643 adults, and there were 1,205 families, with 2,505 children or dependants.

“While there have been ongoing increases in overall levels of homelessness, it is important to recognise the significant work being done by housing authorities and their delivery partners in the approved housing body sector in providing solutions,” the report states.

Other key figures to be released today include:

In excess of 18,000 households/individuals had their social housing needs met in 2016, ahead of the target of just over 17,000.
As part of this overall delivery, the State built, purchased or refurbished some 5,300 homes in 2016 – around 1,000 over the target for the year.
12,000 HAP tenancies were created last year.
1,100 families were accommodated under RAS.

In a foreword for the report, which has been seen by the Irish Independent, Housing Minister Simon Coveney says: “The Action Plan is only six months old but already important signs of progress are emerging.

“I expect these trends to continue and accelerate over the course of 2017 – the first full year of implementation of the Plan – but that can only happen if we continue to collectively put our shoulders to the wheel in tackling the greatest challenge our country faces.”

Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

Many young people will find it harder to get their feet onto the property ladder and have been forced to rethink their plans to inherit the family home after the Government clamped down on a popular tax relief over Christmas, tax experts are warning.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan tightened up the rules around the dwelling house exemption – a tax break which allows houses and apartments to be inherited tax-free – in his latest Finance Bill. The rules were tightened in response to concerns that the exemption was being abused by wealthy people as a way of gifting properties to their children without triggering a tax bill.

How have the rules changed?

Capital Acquisitions Tax (CAT) of 33pc is typically paid by an individual who receives a gift or inheritance. It is more commonly referred to as gift tax or inheritance tax.

Receiving a gift of money or assets is different to receiving it as an inheritance – unlike inheritances, a donor is still alive when gifting something.

There are certain tax reliefs which allow people to receive gifts or inheritances without triggering a CAT bill. Before Christmas, it was possible to use one of these reliefs – the dwelling house exemption – to give a tax-free gift of a property to someone while the donor was still alive. There was no requirement for the individual receiving the property to be a relative of the donor. This is no longer the case.

Under the new rules, the dwelling house exemption can only be used to pass on a property tax-free if the individual passing that property on has died – unless the house is being gifted to a dependent relative. The Revenue Commissioners define a dependent relative as “a direct relative of the donor, or of the donor’s spouse or civil partner, who is permanently and totally incapacitated because of physical or mental infirmity from maintaining himself or herself – or who is over the age of 65”. So in most cases, the dwelling house exemption can now only be used for inheritances.

Another major change to the exemption is that any property inherited must have been the principal place of residence of the deceased person (that is, the person passing on the property) at the date of his or her death – apart from cases where ill health forced the deceased person to leave the house before he or she died (such as to live in a nursing home). Previously, the property being passed on didn’t have to be the donor’s main family home – it could have been a second property or a holiday home.

The only exception here is where the property is being gifted to a dependent relative: in such cases, the house does not have to be the principal private residence of the donor.

How is it harder to inherit the family home tax-free?

Before Christmas, it was much easier to use the dwelling house exemption to inherit a property tax-free. Broadly speaking, as long as the person inheriting the property had been living in the property as his main residence for at least three years -and continued to live there for six years after inheriting it, he could expect to qualify for the exemption. You must still meet those three- and six-year residence rules to be able to claim the exemption. However, you must now also meet the other new conditions which were introduced under the Finance Bill – and this will prevent many people from being able to claim the relief.

The new restrictions are already having an impact, according to Michael Gaffney, tax expert with KPMG. “Individuals and families take time to plan where they live, so plans to acquire a house tend to evolve over months or years,” said Gaffney. “There were a lot of people occupying houses belonging to their parents or other family, and waiting for the three-year period to end so that the house could be gifted to them. The change in law means they must now rethink their plans.”

The new rules will make it harder for many young people to get on the property ladder, according to Norah Collender, tax technical manager with Chartered Accountants Ireland.

“The dwelling house exemption allowed some parents to help their children to get onto the property ladder in a tax-efficient way,” said Collender. “It’s unusual that a tax break like this would be withdrawn when there’s so much attention on the need for homes today. It can be hard for the younger generation to get access to finance for properties.”

The Government has promised to make it easier for children to inherit the family home tax-free by increasing their inheritance tax thresholds, which allow them to inherit a certain amount of wealth from their parents tax-free over their lifetime. Although the Government increased the threshold for children from €280,000 to €310,000 in its latest Budget, many argue that this threshold is still very low – particularly for those inheriting family homes in Dublin where property prices are often well above €310,000. As 33pc inheritance or gift tax is due on the balance over €310,000, children can face crippling tax bills if left valuable family homes.

For this reason, it is not just the wealthy who will be impacted by the new rules, according to Gaffney. “In many parts of Ireland, an ‘ordinary’ house could be worth well in excess of €310,000,” said Gaffney. “The new rules will delay the passing of family homes. However, given that sooner or later everything must be passed on, there will eventually be many situations where the house will need to be sold to pay the tax.”

In recent years, inheritance tax bills have forced some children to sell the family home. The same is true of siblings – or others who have had properties left to them by a relatives. At €32,500, the tax-free threshold for siblings, nieces and nephews is much lower than the €310,000 threshold for children. So the tax bills faced by siblings, nieces and nephews after inheriting property is often much higher and could run to €100,000 or more.

How to chop your inheritance tax bill

One of the most important things you can do to reduce your inheritance tax bill – or the tax bill faced by those that you will leave something to – is to plan to ahead, according to Collender.

“Business relief or agricultural relief are valuable tax reliefs when it comes to passing on businesses to the next generation – but you must meet various conditions and rules to be able to claim the relief,” said Collender. “It is important for family members to talk over future plans about when they want to retire – and what they want to do in life. For example, does a child really want to carry on the family business or keep the family farm? The tax reliefs for the transfer of a family farm or business are dependent on the child retaining or running the business for six years after the inheritance or gift.”

If you have decided to give money or other assets to your children, do so sooner rather than later – assuming the tax is affordable, advised Gaffney. “Over the years the assets of the parents will likely grow in value – and the [inheritance tax] problem gets bigger,” said Gaffney. “If you as parents feel that your children are not quite ready to receive such money or assets and so you want to retain some control over the assets, this can be done. It’s not unusual for gifts to be made with conditions that assets cannot be sold, or funds depleted.”

The annual small gift exemption, which allows a child to get €6,000 worth of tax-free gifts from his or her parents a year, is useful if you wish to drip-feed your inheritance while alive. With this exemption, one individual can give tax-free gifts of up to €3,000 a year to another.

“Two parents could gift €12,000 in total each year to each child and their respective partner – such as a fiancée or son-in-law -free of inheritance tax,” said Collender. “This was used in recent times by parents assisting children with debt or mortgage difficulties. Gifts which qualify for the small gift exemption do not reduce the tax-free thresholds either.”

Ireland’s inheritance tax is one of the highest in the world – but careful and early planning can limit how much it takes out of your pocket.
Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

Office construction in Dublin surged last year, jumping tenfold on the completion levels seen in 2015, property firm HWBC has said.

Prime office rents jumped 9pc last year, with even rent for car parking spaces on the rise.

HWBC said a city space now yields an estimated €4,000 per annum – up 14pc in the past 12 months. Car parking spaces in the suburbs are estimated to be offering an annual rental rate in excess of €1,500 per space.

The firm said it expects office construction this year to continue its rise, as completions are expected to increase 184pc with a total of over 2.3msq of space expected to be finished. However, it said 55pc of this is already pre-committed.

HWBC said it expects prime office rents to rise by 8pc.

Tony Waters, HWBC managing director, said there is potential for up to five million square feet of office space to be delivered in Dublin over the next few years. “However, much of this space will not be delivered without significant pre-lets in place, so at current levels of construction we see no risk of over supply as happened in previous cycles,” he said.

“Whilst rental growth in the office market in Dublin has eased from the double digit levels of 2012 to 2015, prime office rents rose a very respectable 9pc and will grow by a similar level in 2017.”
Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42

More than 13,000 civil servants would pay nothing towards their own pensions if unions get their way at new talks.

Unions will demand the pension levy, brought in during the financial crisis, be abolished at negotiations expected to start in May on a deal to succeed the Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA).

Figures released by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform reveal that 13,853 long-serving civil servants made no contribution towards their personal pension fund before the levy was brought in.

However, it said they do pay 1.5pc towards a survivors’ scheme that could provide benefits to their families when they die.

Public servants have paid the levy – worth 4.5pc of their pay – since it was introduced during the recession in 2009, on top of their existing contributions. It was reduced under the LRA.

Although most public servants would make a contribution to their pension if the levy was axed, sources said the Government was likely to table proposals to keep it in place to cover the soaring cost of retirement benefits.

A Government source said there was a feeling that private sector workers could not be asked to contribute to a mandatory scheme – being championed by Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar – while some public servants made little or no contribution.

Chairman of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ (Ictu) Public Services Committee Tom Geraghty, who will be a key figure at talks, said although civil servants who were hired before April 6, 1995, did not make an “explicit” contribution, there was an “implicit” one.

He said this was because civil servants who joined after this date got a pay rise when contributions were introduced for them.

Mr Geraghty also noted that a discount of 5pc to wages to take account of the fact they did not make a pension contribution has been used at talks on pay.

He said it would be extremely unfair for the vast bulk of civil servants, who earn around €40,000 and whose pensions are integrated with the State pension, to continue to pay 13.5pc between their contributions and the levy.

But actuary and director of Technical Guidance Tony Gilhawley described the pre-1995 civil servants’ retirement arrangements as a “golden package”.

“In addition, the post-1995 civil servants got a salary increase to compensate them for their pension contribution so it is arguable that these civil servants are not paying anything towards it, similar to their colleagues,” he said.

But he said the pre-1995 civil servants are a small group and the bigger question will be the cost of all public sector pensions. He said a new scheme with lower benefits that was introduced in 2013 would not impact on costs for about 40 years.

He said the Comptroller and Auditor General estimated the cash flow from the pension levy would amount to €132bn between 2009 and 2058.

“So abolishing the pension-related deduction entirely would be giving up about €132bn of funds, which would then fall on taxpayers generally, mainly private sector,” he said. “It’s a very big call to make, on a scale like the bank guarantee.”

A recent submission by employer group Ibec to the Public Service Pay Commission said it was “imperative” that the pension levy should become a permanent fixture.

It argued that while many public service workers make significant contributions if the levy was included, they were modest compared with the benefits. It estimates that the employer contribution is almost 14pc higher than its private sector counterparts.

“Current contributions, inclusive of the pension-related deduction, amount to around 70pc of pension outgoings with the State in effect funding the remainder,” it said, adding that, discounting the pension levy, that figure falls to 29pc and by 2058 those figures will stand at 50pc and 18pc “leaving an unsustainable bill for the State”.

The submission said the most recent estimate dating from 2009 puts the total liability in respect of public service pensions at €98bn, but estimates that changes in market conditions since then mean it may have hit €130bn.
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