Online Banking Blog – Financial Information from RaboDirect Ireland

Five key points every investor needs to know

Submitted by Killian Nolan | Investment Manager RaboDirect on Wednesday, 2 September 2009 | Category: Investments

I went with my daughter to get her new school books last weekend and when I had a flick through them I was amazed at how detailed they are given that she’s only in primary school. For me, it’s really reassuring to see that she’s being taught the basics in subjects like maths so early, giving her a much better chance of understanding the more complicated topics in the years to come. I was a Wealth Manager for many years...

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FREE Sustainable Asset Management Seminar – 15th September 2009

Submitted by Killian Nolan on Friday, 21 August 2009 | Category: Investments

Dabbled or thinking about investing? Consider yourself a seasoned professional? Interested in hearing more about sustainable investments or RaboDirect in general?

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Rabobank Group announces solid interim results 2009

Submitted by Roel van Veggel | General Manager RaboDirect on Thursday, 27 August 2009 | Category: General

Despite difficult economic conditions, Rabobank Group has achieved solid results for the first six months of 2009, with net profit at EUR 1.3 billion and an improved capital position. Our Tier 1 ratio has improved and stands at 13%.

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China’s ‘revaluation’ : don’t believe the hype, look to fundamentals

Submitted by Stephen Kinsella | University of Limerick on Thursday, 24 June 2010 | Category: Investments

The New York Times [1] writes: The People’s Bank of China said that the Chinese economy was strengthening after the global financial crisis and that it was “desirable to proceed further with reform” of the currency, known as the Renminbi or Yuan. The announcement comes a week before world leaders gather in Canada for the Group of 20 and Group of eight summit meetings. A growing number of countries have been calling for China to let the Renminbi appreciate, including the United States, European nations and India, Brazil and Singapore in recent weeks. Forget this ...

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Tour de France 2009

Submitted by Roel van Veggel | RaboDirect General Manager on Monday, 6 July 2009 | Category: General

July is traditionally the months for summer holidays and big sport events. We saw the thrilling final of Wimbledon yesterday and in the same weekend the 96th edition of the Tour de France started, this year in Monaco. The Tour de France always gets extra focus of all Rabo staff worldwide (aprox 60.000) because of our own Rabobank Professional cycling team. Irish cyclists have played dominant roles in the past in the Tour with Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche.

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RaboDirect introduces the RaboDirect Investor Barometer (RIB)

Submitted by Killian Nolan | RaboDirect Investment Manager on Thursday, 2 July 2009 | Category: Investments

At the start of the year I noticed that many of our investors were erring on the side of caution and investing in traditionally defensive funds like gold and bonds. But, as the months go by investors have started to regain their confidence and I can see a clear shift in focus to more high-potential, high-risk markets such as China and India and this got the RaboDirect team thinking.

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David McWilliams - Q&A

Submitted by David McWilliams | Economist on Monday, 29 June 2009 | Category: General

David McWilliams has been asking difficult questions of some of the most influential and thought provoking characters of recent times, so we thought it would be interesting to turn the tables and invited you to put your questions to him. We were delighted with the response so thank you to everyone who sent in a question. We guessed he wouldn’t be short of a few words and we weren’t disappointed. Here’s what he had to say to your most popular questions.

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Who are they fooling? It’s not you, is it?

Submitted by Roel van Veggel | General Manager RaboDirect on Tuesday, 16 June 2009 | Category: Savings

Now that the dust around Irish banks seems to have settled a bit, I am amazed to see most of them go back to their old marketing behaviour. In particular, I’m referring to the addiction to and obsession with promotional rates. What’s that all about? I was triggered by several advertisements from one of our competitors recently offering 7% on a current account! Wow, sounds great doesn’t it? But is it really transparent?

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Fancy a word in David McWilliams' ear?

Submitted by Gina McCrudden | RaboDirect on Thursday, 4 June 2009 | Category:

In David McWilliams' own words ‘reputations are earned not bequeathed’ and he’s certainly earned his as a journalist, economist, author and more recently as a broadcaster and documentary maker. He’s probably best known for his early predictions of the economic boom made back in 1995 – an era we remember fondly as the Celtic Tiger and his early warnings of the Irish property market’s demise.

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Investing when interest rates are low

Submitted by Killian Nolan | Investment Manager RaboDirect on Tuesday, 19 May 2009 | Category: Investments

In May 2009 we saw ECB interest rates (currently 1%) drop to an all time low. Good news indeed for those of you with a tracker or variable mortgage as your costs will have reduced significantly since last autumn, but what does it mean for those of you relying on generating an income from your savings?