In short

A roundup of today's other business news in brief

Fitch downgrades EBS's mortgage-backed bonds

Credit rating agency Fitch has downgraded the mortgage-backed bonds at the mortgage finance division of EBS building society to "AA" from "AAA" after the lender's long-term issue default rating was lowered last Friday.

The agency said that the default rate on the mortgages in the portfolio stands at 15.1 per cent. Fitch said that €1.74 billion of collateral was transferred into the mortgage bank of which about €500 million were buy-to-let loans.

Labour critical of Anglo handling

The Labour Party has criticised the Government’s handling of Anglo Irish Bank following the bank’s nationalisation, saying there is “no public accountability, zero transparency and no sign that this is set to change any time soon”.

Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton said a report in yesterday’s Irish Times, which disclosed that eight senior managers at the bank had loans of almost €22 million at the end of September 2008, showed bankers had “become players in the property game”.

“The very people tasked with managing Anglo’s property lending were up to their necks in property deals themselves,” she said.

Budget Travel confirms closure of 14 shops and loss of 95 jobs

Budget Travel has confirmed it is to close 14 shops across the country with the loss of 95 jobs. The shops to close are in Athlone, Clonmel, Cork, Dublin, Tralee, Dundalk, Ennis, Limerick, Mullingar and Wexford. The company, which operates 39 shops, said another four shops are under "serious threat". Workers will receive two weeks' pay for every year of service in a redundancy deal.