A round-up of today's other stories in brief.

IIB introduces capped tracker mortgage

IIB Homeloans has introduced a new type of mortgage which is designed to allay borrowers' fears of rising interest rates.

Under IIB's capped tracker mortgage, borrowers pay the European Central Bank (ECB) rate (currently 2.75 per cent) plus a margin of 1.25 percentage points, making the current tracker rate 4 per cent.

This is higher than most other interest rates available, but the advantage of the IIB product is the security of having a "cap", which guarantee the interest rate will not exceed 4.99 per cent over a three-year period.

Multi-trip policies popular in Ireland

Almost half of all travel insurance policies sold in Ireland are annual multi-trip policies, according to Blue Insurances.

The broker said six out of every 10 people who bought the multi-trip policies had availed of the discounts offered to holders of private medical insurance.

Blue Insurances, which sells policies through travel agents and tour operators, is now including cover for the financial failure of airlines, accommodation providers or car hire companies not covered by any other compensation scheme.

Axa launches reward scheme

Axa Insurance has launched a new customer reward programme, called Axa Plus, which gives customers discounts on petrol, new and used cars, home and overseas holidays, furniture and mobile calls.

On the Axa Fuel Card, run in conjunction with Statoil, the average price for petrol in May was 114.6 cent per litre, compared to an AA average of 117.8 cent per litre.

More information is available at www.axaplus.ie.

New RaboDirect investment plan

Online bank RaboDirect has introduced a new investment plan, called the Rabo Regular Investor, for customers who want to invest a fixed amount of money on a regular basis in RaboDirect's range of investment funds.

The minimum initial investment is €100 per fund and there are entry and exit fees of 0.75 per cent.