BACK PAGE:Irish Nationwide's plans to help stimulate the mortgage market, particularly for first-time buyers, hit a snag recently when the Financial Regulator vetoed the proposed name for the home loan.

The building society, led now by chief executive Gerry McGinn, is preparing to launch a range of home loan products, including mortgages for first-time buyers, where there are still signs of life.

But I’m told the Financial Regulator wasn’t too impressed with the suggested name – the “No Worries Mortgage”.

Given that repaying the mortgage is the thing most people worry about in the current environment, it was probably a sensible call – for once – by the regulator. That’s to say nothing of Irish Nationwide’s reputation for charging heavy penalties to those in arrears.

Informed sources tell me that “Umbrella” is being tossed around as a possible alternative name in advance of the product’s launch next month. It brings to mind the saying about bankers giving you an umbrella when the sun shines – and taking it away when it rains.

Sticking with banking, a senior executive at Dutch group Rabobank, owner of ACCBank, didn’t mince his words this week about the state of the Irish property market and the future of our economy. Speaking at Rabobank’s half-year results, chief financial officer Bert Bruggink said given the medium-term economic prospects, the bank had concluded that “there is little hope that the Irish economy will recover in the near future”, and that this was why the bank had decided to reduce its operations in Ireland gradually, although it is not withdrawing totally.

Rabobank has taken a provision of €1 billion on its Irish loans, the equivalent of a whopping 20 per cent of ACC’s loan book. It is closing 16 of ACC’s 25 branches and laying off 200 staff.

Dutch journalists asked what had happened, given Rabobank’s conservative banking practices. Bruggink said Ireland had been a booming economy “and until years ago it was called the “age of the Celts”. It’s “still the age of the Celts but not the way they were”.

You can say that again, Bert.