Latest news with #PwCIreland
Irish Examiner
29-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Revenue ramps up warehoused debt enforcement
The number of court-appointed liquidators for businesses in Ireland jumped in the second quarter, driven by increased Revenue enforcement. Such liquidations rose to 34, compared to 25 in the first quarter, bringing court-appointed liquidations for the first half of the year to 59, more than three times the 19 recorded in the same period last year. Analysis by PwC shows that Revenue was the petitioner of 38 of these 59 cases, suggesting that the elevated enforcement is linked to the conclusion of Revenue's debt warehousing scheme. For the same period last year, there were just five Revenue petitions. Scheme saved 4,500 businesses PwC estimated that more than 4,500 businesses in Ireland were saved from failure through a range of government supports during the covid pandemic, with a number of these firms being placed on 'life support'. The winding-down of the various schemes has resulted in a rise in business insolvencies and liquidations. More than 93% (€3bn) of the business tax debts under the Revenue's debt warehouse scheme have now been settled or secured, with €30m being collected in repayments monthly. According to the Revenue's 2024 annual report, 7,000 businesses, with debts of €100m, failed to engage with Revenue to formulate a repayment plan and face normal collection and enforcement proceedings. 20% rise in insolvencies in Q2 PwC said there was a 20% jump in business insolvencies in the second quarter, to 229, compared with 192 recorded in the first three months. However, despite the jump, total insolvencies for the first half of the year are in line with the number in the same six-month period of 2024. 'This steadying of insolvencies over the six-month timeline shows that the Irish economy and Irish businesses continue to demonstrate resilience amid domestic challenges and international geopolitical uncertainties,' Ken Tyrrell, business recovery partner, PwC Ireland, said. 'However, you cannot ignore the ongoing, global geopolitical risks and prevailing economic uncertainties, and it remains to be seen what the remainder of the year has in store. Businesses and consumers also continue to deal with a higher cost base, driven by domestic and international factors. Organisations should continue to reinvent their businesses using AI and emerging technologies. They should focus on their core strategies, cost base, and actively manage their working capital and cash positions to ensure that they are financially sustainable into the future. The number of retail insolvencies more than doubled in the second quarter to 53. This increase comes after the industry demonstrated strong resilience post-Christmas. However, despite the apparent spike in he second quarter, the total number of retail insolvencies for the first half of the year (78) is still slightly lower compared to the same period of 2024 (84). The hospitality industry recorded 35 insolvencies in the second quarter of 2025, a decrease of 19%, from 43 insolvencies in quarter one. Albeit a decrease quarter on quarter, this level of hospitality insolvencies is closely in line with the average of 39 per quarter observed across 2024 and the first quarter of 2025. Five counties account for 75% of insolvencies: Dublin, Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, and Meath, with Dublin accounting for half of all insolvencies. There was a notable increase in examinerships in the second quarter, with 13 appointments, compared to just one in the first quarter. Of the 13 companies, seven belonged to a single, large group of related companies placed under high court protection, so a more accurate, comparable figure is seven for the second quarter. PwC said the Small Companies Administrative Rescue Process (SCARP) continues to see limited uptake, with 14 cases in the first half of 2025, broadly in line with the 13 cases during the same period of 2024.
Irish Examiner
20-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Workers' fears over AI are eased by rising wages and recruitment
People's fears for their job security have allayed and are quickly being replaced with optimism as companies are boosting wages and recruitment for even the most at-risk roles. AI-skilled workers saw an average 56% wage premium in 2024, double the 25% in the previous year, the PwC 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer has found. The study has also found a fourfold increase in productivity growth, while jobs even the most easily automated roles are showing jobs growth. Wages are growing twice as fast in industries more exposed to AI versus less exposed, with wages rising in both automatable and augmentable jobs. The job security fears that people voiced at the outset of AI have reduced markedly since then. Laoise Mullane, director of workforce consulting with PwC Ireland, said: 'In contrast to worries that AI could cause sharp reductions in the number of jobs available — this year's findings show jobs are growing in virtually every type of AI-exposed occupation, including highly automatable ones. 'AI is amplifying and democratising expertise, enabling employees to multiply their impact and focus on higher-level responsibilities. With the right foundations, both companies and workers can re-define their roles and industries and emerge leaders in their field, particularly as the full gambit of applications becomes clearer.' Jobs which require AI skills also offer a wage premium (over similar roles that don't require AI skills) in every industry analysed, with the average premium hitting 56%, up from 25% last year. Jobs that require such AI skills also continue to grow faster than all jobs — rising 7.5% from last year, even as total job postings fell 11.3%. The picture in Ireland is particularly positive in terms of allaying people AI-related job anxieties; the number of AI-exposed roles has almost doubled since 2019. In Ireland, the study also shows more job postings and higher demand for roles requiring AI-related skills. Job numbers in AI-exposed occupations in Ireland have grown 94% since 2019 — including positive growth in every type of occupation. Augmentation-exposed jobs have seen much higher job growth across almost all sectors than automation exposed jobs, reflecting demand for workers who are enhanced by AI. In Ireland, the results suggest that AI-exposed occupations are also undergoing transformation, requiring workers to reskill and upskill more frequently. For example, the top quartile of occupations exposed to AI in Ireland have seen a 2.78 times greater change in demanded skills compared to the bottom quartile. The survey responses suggest that AI is making workers more valuable, more productive, and more able to command higher wage premiums, with job numbers rising even in roles considered most automatable. The report is based on analysis of close to a billion job ads from six continents. David Lee, chief technology officer, PwC Ireland. David Lee, chief technology officer, PwC Ireland, said: 'The research shows that the power of AI to deliver for businesses is only at the start of the transition. 'As we roll out agentic AI at enterprise scale, we will see how the right combination of technology and culture can create dramatic new opportunities to reimage how organisations work and create value.' The report finds that since GenAI's proliferation in 2022, productivity growth has nearly quadrupled in industries most exposed to AI (e.g. financial services, software publishing), rising from 7% from 2018-2022 to 27% from 2018-2024. In contrast, the rate of productivity growth in industries least exposed to AI (e.g. mining, hospitality) declined from 10% to 9% over the same period. The 2024 data shows that the most AI-exposed industries are now seeing three times higher growth in revenue per employee than the least exposed. While the picture on productivity, wages and jobs is broadly positive, the research does highlight the need for workers and businesses to adapt to a much faster pace of change. The skills sought by employers are changing 66% faster in occupations most exposed to AI, up from 25% last year. What it takes to succeed in AI-exposed jobs is changing in other ways. Employer demand for formal degrees is declining for all jobs, but especially quickly for AI-exposed jobs. The percentage of jobs AI augments that require a degree fell 7 percentage points between 2019 and 2024 from 66% to 59%, and 9 percentage points (53% to 44%) for jobs AI automates. Gerard McDonough, partner, workforce consulting, PwC Ireland. Gerard McDonough, partner, workforce consulting, PwC Ireland, added: 'In Ireland, we are also seeing the productivity prize from AI: PwC's 2025 Irish CEO survey showed that 44% of Irish CEOs reported AI had increased efficiencies in their employees' time at work in the last 12 months. 'However, to reach full potential, close attention needs to be given to skills enhancement: PwC's Irish 2025 GenAI Business Leaders survey revealed that 73% of Irish business leaders are of the view that AI will require most of their workforce to develop new skills. 'AI's rapid advance is not just re-shaping industries, but fundamentally altering the workforce and the skills required. This is not a situation that employers can easily buy their way out of. Even if they can pay the premium required to attract talent with AI skills, those skills can quickly become out of date without investment in the systems to help the workforce learn.'
Irish Examiner
18-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Keeping pace in the financial fraud arms race
With financial crime estimated to cost upwards of $3 trillion globally and continuing to grow, it can seem as if the criminals have the upper hand. But Irish fintechs are helping both financial services institutions and consumers to take on the fraudsters – and win. 'Through the deployment of technologies including digital ID checks, real time transaction monitoring, fraud awareness campaigns and artificial intelligence, Irish fintech companies are supporting the financial services systems to identify suspicious activity faster and more accurately,' says Julie Kennedy, partner in financial services risk and regulation at PwC Ireland. Julie Kennedy of PwC Ireland. 'The Central Bank of Ireland has selected several firms for their inaugural innovation sandbox programme, the theme of which is Combatting Financial Crime,' she adds. 'It aims to provide regulatory advice and support to firms who are developing innovative methods to combat financial crime. For consumers, this means safer online banking and fewer scams and supports the development of trust within the financial services system.' Even still, it's a never-ending chase, the pace of which is accelerating. 'Criminals will exploit new technologies to defraud financial institutions (FIs) faster than they, or regulators, can keep up. With generative AI, crypto, decentralised finance, and more, financial crime can be committed in new ways and at a scale seen before,' says Daragh Tracey, director of product management at MyComplianceOffice (MCO), a compliance management software platform. Daragh Tracey of MyComplianceOffice. 'With generative AI, fraudsters can use social security numbers stolen from a data breach and generate fake passports and fake social media profiles and then use them to open bank accounts in large volumes.' In an era of sanctions since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, criminals are using technology to create complex shell company structures distributed around the world to hide sanctioned individuals, he says, ultimately to launder money through the US financial system or other financial hubs. 'So to some financial institutions, it does feel like the bad guys are winning. FIs are burdened by slow, oftentimes manual, know your customer and anti-money-laundering (AML) systems to screen, verify and monitor customers, as well as regulatory obligations under the Banking Secrecy Act [and] the sixth AML Directive. The truth is that criminals are innovative; they'll use the latest technology to overload and bypass these checks in order to launder money and commit other financial crime.' It's why the sector must be proactive. 'Financial institutions have been in a defensive position for a long time now but those that have adapted to the new world and leveraged modern technology solutions have been able to turn the tables and get ahead of the criminals and fraudsters,' says Tracey. 'For example, where sanctioned individuals are hidden behind shell companies, we need solutions that can systematically drill down through those layers of obfuscation and identify the sanctioned person or company. If passports are being faked, FIs need systems that can automatically verify legal documents and match them against the owner. Cutting-edge software can be used to automatically risk assess not just all customers, but also all shareholders, firms and any other related business or person connected to the customer, to assess them for risk and apply scrutiny accordingly.' What doesn't work is trying to expand manual due diligence processes. 'If financial institutions are using outdated systems – sometimes even email and excel – to on-board their customers, they're going to be outpaced by criminals using the latest technologies,' he cautions. 'Using behavioural insights based on data including customer info, shareholder data, transaction activity, connections to internal employees, and more, MCO builds a network view of the risk posed by the customer that FIs can use to anticipate risks proactively rather than just reacting after the crisis.' As a fintech neobank, Revolut takes the industry-wide risk of customers being coerced by sophisticated criminals incredibly seriously and, in 2024 alone, prevented approximately €750 million in potential fraud against its customers. Malcolm Craig of Revolut. 'The business continually enhances the app's security features, this year launching in-app calls to help customers quickly expose phone-call scams, as well as implementing real-time AI fraud detection systems, transaction limits, biometric authentication, and providing educational resources to help consumers remain informed,' explains Malcolm Craig, general manager at Revolut Bank UAB – Ireland Branch. Indeed, Revolut's Financial Crime team represents almost a third of its global workforce. It has also developed sophisticated AI models capable of spotting and blocking potentially fraudulent transactions. Revolut, alongside many other financial institutions, deploys a number of different interventions that are designed to 'break the spell' of scammers and fraudsters, he says. 'While Revolut can't share the specifics of these interventions, so as to not provide any insight that could help criminals socially engineer their victims, the business is constantly testing a range of eye-catching warnings. Revolut urges its customers to take stock of its warnings and interventions to ensure that their money is protected,' he adds. Current in-app security features include strict identity checks powered by machine learning, which enable Revolut to verify identity quickly and thoroughly, to prevent criminals from setting up accounts. Every mobile device with Revolut on it is attached to a customer's biometrics. So if their phone is stolen, or their account is logged into on a new device, the same checks will apply. Customers can personalise their security settings across more than 10 features, including card controls, location-based triggers, gambling blocks, and more. A customer's physical card must be activated in-app. That's the only place their PIN is available. 'If something looks suspicious, Revolut's machine learning models pick it up. AI algorithms can flag high-risk transactions and suspicious spending patterns immediately,' he adds.
Irish Examiner
18-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Bringing AI to bear on financial services
Fintech companies have transformed the financial services world through the application of digital technologies; AI and GenAI are likely to bring about further disruption and transformation in what is already a fast-moving sector. Keith Power, a partner at PwC Ireland, says technology is by now fundamental to the functionality of the financial services sector. As it becomes more sophisticated, this not only opens up a world of possibility but also introduces new risks. 'Digital banking platforms, algorithmic trading and regtech solutions are embedded across the sector,' he says. 'As these technologies are critical to daily operations, they can become front of mind when a technical issue occurs that has a negative impact on consumers. Consider, for example, the interruption to global financial markets caused by the Bloomberg outage in May this year.' Keith Power, a partner at PwC Ireland. The benefits for consumers of this tech evolution are almost goes without saying, for one thing, that customers can access financial services products much faster and more conveniently than in the past 'Consumers can apply for finance, invest in the stock market, and purchase cryptocurrency using digital platforms,' says Power. 'Such technology also allows for diversified options for consumers, which can be tailored to their own preferences. This represents not just a benefit for consumers but also an opportunity to capture market share for those organisations that adopt the technology quickly.' Power also notes that pillar banks have been plagued with legacy issues that have affected customers in the past. 'Embracing transparent technical processes will help these organisations prevent these issues from occurring again,' he says. While digital disrupters that have entered the market in recent times have raised the bar in terms of customer experience, Power points out that these are also leaner organisations, giving them a lower cost base. 'With the emergence of GenAI, the pillar banks have an opportunity to close the gap even further, not only in the areas of customer experience, but also to help them to become more efficient, particularly in their back-office operations,' he says. Owen Lewis, KPMG's head of banking and capital markets. Owen Lewis, KPMG's head of banking and capital markets, agrees: 'With AI, GenAI and cloud-native platforms maturing rapidly, we're seeing a shift from incremental digitalisation to full-scale transformation. This trend is only accelerating. Most firms are moving from experimenting with use cases to enterprise-wide scaling to understand how to bring real value and how to scale this.' Fintech firms enable faster product development and more personalised services, and tackle specific issues such as greater financial inclusion, notes Lewis. 'For traditional banks, this can be a catalyst for rethinking legacy models and unlocking new value through new business models, customer interactions and, of course, enablement through a more personalised and humanised interaction with GenAI,' he says. And while initial GenAI use cases focused on personal productivity, Power believes the capabilities of agentic AI are truly game changing: 'Agentic AI gives organisations the ability to completely reimagine their business processes, and organisations are already beginning to realise this opportunity, moving from piloting and experimenting with GenAI to adopting it at scale.' For example, he says, the use of technology, and GenAI in particular, can allow financial services firms to deal more easily with the ever-increasing regulatory requirements that organisations face, freeing up resources to focus on more value-adding activities. 'Also, real time fraud detection on a large scale has been difficult to achieve, particularly in payment platforms,' he adds. Leveraging AI-driven models can help to analyse transactions and detect patterns and behaviours at scale for significantly enhanced fraud detection. GenAI is now being strategically deployed in areas such as client onboarding, regulatory compliance and even internal knowledge management, says Lewis. 'The key is responsible deployment, thinking about the value that can be generated and how it can be scaled. Customers will want to know if they are interacting with a real person or AI, and banks will need to think about how this is messaged and managed,' he adds. Indeed, consumer trust in AI is one of the challenges the industry faces even as it continues to embrace it. Julianne Ressel is working on a joint PhD at the University of Limerick and TH Cologne in Germany. Her research concerns consumer trust in AI in the insurance industry. Ressel notes that while 'trustworthy AI' is something of a buzzword, in reality this may mean different things. 'Automation efforts that are considered AI have been part of processes in insurance for a long time but it has become more visible in recent times,' she explains. 'We see people use the trustworthy AI label to mobilise uptake and decrease resistance.' However, failure to embrace digital and AI transformation will ultimately lead to firms falling behind says Power. 'Those that are slower to adopt AI and embed AI in their processes will lose market share, particularly to the newer digitally native firms in the market,' he says. 'And while the financial services sector is keen to adopt AI technologies into their business, it is critical that robust AI governance structures are in place, and that staff in these organisations are educated in terms of the capabilities of these tools.' Lewis agrees and notes the rate of change of the underlying technology platforms also poses a significant risk in itself: 'As firms look to industrialise solutions, they need to do this with technology and alliance partners so that their business can mature along with the technology rather than get locked into a solution that rapidly becomes outdated.'
RTÉ News
10-06-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
PwC calls for Capital Gains Tax to be reduced to 20%
PwC is calling for the the reform of the Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT), to broaden tax policy and to reduce the Capital Gains Tax to 20% from 33%. The proposals are part of PwC's 2026 Pre-Budget Submission aiming to reset tax policy in a number of key areas to promote Ireland's competitiveness Tax Leader, PwC Ireland, Paraic Burke, said the need to bolster Ireland's competitive offering has never been more apparent in a period of increasing global instability and heightened international tax competition. "With increasing geopolitical risks and uncertainties, Ireland must take action to control our own controllables. While there are constraints about what we can do at international levels, domestically, Ireland has full control to determine its destiny on key domestic issues such as housing, decarbonisation and energy security," said Mr Burke. "Ireland must continue to simplify its tax system, expand incentives and support businesses and individuals in driving sustainable growth. Tax policies and incentives, if wisely chosen, could be critical to addressing Ireland's key infrastructural, housing, climate and other challenges. "Following endorsement from the EU to utilise targeted tax incentives, the Irish government should not be afraid to use them. Budget 2026 offers Ireland an opportunity to make changes that can help to direct the future course of our country." PwC's Submission calls for the reduction in the 33% Capital Gains Tax (CGT), one of the highest in Europe, to 20% to promote the transfer of businesses to the Irish business leaders of tomorrow. It suggests treating the exit of a shareholder from a business as a CGT event rather than being subject to income tax (and higher tax) would be an important step towards achieving this.
