In Short

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

EU overhaul of VAT laws to benefit banks

Banks and insurers in the European Union are set to benefit from plans to revamp a 1977 law that exempts financial services from value-added tax (VAT).

Proposals for an overhaul are due later this year and are likely to address a costly headache for the industry. The current regime means banks and insurers are barred from charging VAT for the services they provide to their customers, while they must pay VAT on the products and services they themselves buy in.

This situation, says a consultation paper released by the European Commission this week, has saddled the industry with additional costs and an administrative burden. - (Financial Times service)

Rate increases at Bank of Ireland

Bank of Ireland is the latest bank to pass on the recent ECB rate rise by announcing loan and deposit interest rate increases.

The bank has raised its standard variable rate and its investment variable rate by 0.24 per cent, taking its rate to 3.99 per cent

The Group's subsidiary ICS Building Society will also increase the interest rates on its portfolio of variable rate products.

BMW forecasts record earnings

BMW, the world's biggest premium carmaker, expects record 2006 earnings due to an easing burden from raw material costs and exchange rates as well as one-off gains from selling Rolls-Royce Plc shares.

"Our target is to achieve a profit before tax of €4 billion in the current financial year at group level," chief executive Helmut Panke said yesterday. The 2005 figure was €3.29 billion. - (Reuters)

Aminex signs Kenyan deal

Aminex has agreed to farm-in a technical evaluation study of two blocks offshore Kenya in return for a 25 per cent interest in the evaluation project.

The participation agreement, signed with Upstream Petroleum Services Limited, is in respect of blocks L9 and L10 offshore Kenya.

Adwalker revenue to hit €700,000

Adwalker, the Dublin-based media company which listed on AIM last August, has said it expects revenue for the year to the end of February to be around €700,000. The bulk of this was generated in the last two months of the year.

Advertising at Daily Mail drops

Advertising has fallen at the Daily Mail and General Trust, which owns two newspapers in the Republic, in the five months to the end of February.

At Associated Newspapers - home to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and London Evening Standard - advertising revenues were down by 9 per cent compared with the same period a year ago. The company also owns the Irish Daily Mail and Ireland on Sunday. - (Guardian service)