Latest news with #Timoney
The 42
09-05-2025
- Sport
- The 42
'We know what we need, so we can't hold anything back'
WITH SO MUCH about this interprovincial for both teams' URC play-off hopes, Nick Timoney is intent on embracing all aspects of the pressurised challenge in doing battle with Munster at Thomond Park. Both teams currently find themselves outside the top eight with just two rounds remaining – Munster are ninth but on equal points with Benetton (41), while Ulster are in 12th on 38 points – to not only secure knockout rugby in the league but also a place in next season's Champions Cup which both provinces have never missed out on. For Timoney and his teammates, it's a case of Ulster's season being on the line and, as such, the northern province are fully invested in chasing the result in Limerick from what is essentially already 'cup final' rugby. Advertisement 'It's a final (against Munster) and then it's final again the following week (at Edinburgh) if we win,' said the 29-year-old backrower and one of Ulster's most consistent performers. 'We know what we need, so we can't hold anything back. 'There's no looking past this Friday because there won't be much left to look at if we don't get it right, so it's a big one,' admitted Timoney who has played 165 times for Ulster but has never won in Limerick with the province. 'It's obviously a negative this week if we lose for a lot of reasons, so, again, (we need to) embrace it (the challenge) and make sure we've got the lads all on the pitch with that same mindset that you want to be here and that's what you want to do.' The three times capped Ireland player also spoke of using the emotion and must-win aspects of the occasion as positives to allow Ulster take the game to their hosts who look in a better place to make the top eight as their final two rounds are at home. 'It's going to be a big emotional day for them,' he said of what is likely to be a final outing at Thomond Park for veterans Peter O'Mahony, Conor Murray and Stephen Archer, 'but I think we're often at our best on similar sort of occasions. 'And I think when those games get quite needly and personal, which the interpros always are, that brings out the best in us as well. 'So, we're not coming in (to this game) unaware by any stretch.'
RTÉ News
08-05-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
Faster housing delivery could mitigate impact of tariffs
Faster housing delivery could mitigate the impact of tariffs, according to the latest report from Davy. Updated forecasts from the Department of Finance show that economic growth will slow next year due to US tariffs. Davy believe that this presents a compelling rationale for the Government to use all available levers to accelerate housing and infrastructure delivery in the near term. Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Davy's chief economist Kevin Timoney said that looking at the recent history of the Irish economy, "the best time to have built housing was probably about 10 years ago realistically." "Now that we potentially have a slowdown in activity that creates a bit of capacity," said Mr Timoney. "There's often concern that there wasn't the capacity to do all of the growth in the economy and to add to the supply side as well. We see that there's a good opportunity coming up now and that it would be a good, almost countercyclical time to do it when the the rest of the economy is potentially slowed from tariffs," he said. Davy is also highlighting levers the Government can use to accelerate housing and infrastructure delivery in the near term. This week the Minister for Housing James Brown said he is considering a report from the Housing Agency on potential changes to rent pressure zones. The report examines the options available to Government including removing rent caps, retaining the existing ceiling which limit increases to 2% or adjusting the existing limits. Mr Timoney described the ongoing review of rent pressure zones to open up increased supply, lowering construction costs and potentially looking to do further reforms in terms of planning as the three key areas to be looked at. "I think in the near term there could be a boost to housing output anyway, we did see a big increase in commencements last year. These have been somewhat discredited because there were some subsidies at play and maybe not all of the commencements will be built," he said. "But even if some of them were built, that would still imply a good boost to housing in the second quarter of this year so it'll be interesting to see whether that takes place," he added.
BreakingNews.ie
24-04-2025
- Business
- BreakingNews.ie
Current housing output means targets for 2025 unlikely to be met, chief economist says
The current housing output means that government targets for 2025 are unlikely to be met, chief economist Kevin Timoney has said. The number of homes completed in the first three months of the year increased by two per cent compared with the same period last year, new figures released on Thursday showed. Advertisement Completions data published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show there were 5,938 dwellings completed in January, February, and March in 2025. However, the Department of Housing released figures this week that confirmed the Government missed its new-build social housing target by 1,429 last year, or 15 per cent, having also missed it in previous years. As well as this, Central Bank has projected that the Government will miss its own housing targets by a wide margin for the next three years. Davy chief economist, Kevin Timoney, said: 'Despite growth in new apartments in Q1, house completions disappointed compared to our expectation of an increase, and our forecast of 42,000 units this year already looks unlikely to be met. Advertisement "Reforms remain necessary for housing delivery to ramp up, which is even more important as uncertainty due to tariffs slows Irish economic growth this year." Timoney said Davy's view remains that a weak level of housing output remains likely until major reforms are fully implemented with respect to rent controls, construction costs, and the planning process. "The stalled level of housing output far below what is needed should provide ample motivation for the new government to expedite these reforms. "Assuming these reforms take place, and priority is placed on addressing wider infrastructure challenges (especially with respect to water and electricity/grid constraints), a pathway to far higher housing delivery continues to be available.'
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Fed raises alarm on synthetic identity fraud
This story was originally published on Payments Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Payments Dive newsletter. One goal of the Federal Reserve is to facilitate a secure, safe payment system, but a Boston Federal Reserve Bank official this week pointed out a major, and growing, obstacle to that mission: synthetic identity fraud. During the Boston Fed's Six Hundred Atlantic podcast interview released Monday, Mike Timoney, vice president of secure payments and fintech at the Boston Fed, discussed the growing risk of synthetic identity fraud, the role credit cards play in constructing fake identities and the use of generative artificial intelligence to accelerate synthetic identity fraud. Like the Federal Reserve, risk officers at financial institutions have also been paying greater attention to synthetic identity fraud, according to the annual Federal Reserve Financial Services survey released Tuesday. Synthetic identity fraud involves threat actors stealing information, such as people's driver's licenses, checking accounts or Social Security numbers, from multiple real people and using it to construct a false identity, Timoney said. Two key components of synthetic identity fraud are opening an account in the name of the fake person and establishing good credit for the false identity using a credit card. Those credit cards and accounts establish credibility for the fake identity and give fraudsters access to the financial system, he said. 'What happens when your credit rating goes up? Banks want to give you more money. They extend your credit, give you higher credit limits, right?' Timoney explained during the interview. 'So, the fraudsters could continue to do that.' And that's not 'a short-term scam, it's really a long-term,' he added. While a common tactic to access fraudulently obtained funds is using mule accounts, some threat actors have been able to open their own accounts using synthetic fraud, bypassing the need for a mule account, Timoney said. Mule accounts involve manipulating a legitimate account holder into accepting the ill-gotten funds into their account, but that requires recruiting account holders and paying a portion of those funds to the account holder, he explained. 'By opening their own accounts, they don't have to do that,' Timoney said. 'What we've seen is this huge shift into now opening accounts through online portals, and so, therefore, the fraudsters have shifted.' Generative artificial intelligence has helped to accelerate synthetic identity fraud by giving threat actors a sophisticated tool to comb through stolen data and create fake identities faster, Timoney said. Using generative AI, cybercriminals can create collections of counterfeit identities and determine which fake profiles are successful, which ones are not, and target financial institutions where they are more successful, he added. 'It can make sure that it's not duplicating things,' Timoney said. 'It can try to leverage the learnings that it has from the data sets to make sure that it's being as varied as possible, so that they have [a higher] success rate.' To alert financial institutions about the rising risks, the Federal Reserve continues to update its synthetic identity fraud toolkit with new articles, Timoney said. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve Financial Services unit's survey of more than 360 institutions suggests that synthetic identity fraud is becoming a bigger headache for financial firms. Nearly four in ten survey respondents said synthetic identity fraud was a persistent (25%) or increasing (14%) problem for them, the Fed's survey results showed. Also, nearly half described mule account activity as either an increasing (18%) or persistent (29%) issue, growing 12% last year over 2023 as a cause of concern. Mule accounts were among the primary drivers of fraud for financial institutions, the survey said. Along with the Federal Reserve, financial firms have been warning each other of the role artificial intelligence has played in accelerating fraud. During the annual Money 20/20 conference in Las Vegas last fall, financial institutions sounded the alarm on the use of artificial intelligence tools that enable fraudsters to circumvent their monitoring for unusual activity. One way financial firms can combat cybercriminals who are using AI is to partner with one another, Nicole Lauredan, partnerships leader for the payments processing software company Stripe, said during the conference. Stripe's card issuer network enables financial firms to share data on fraudulent transactions and lets them share the company's anti-fraud services, Lauredan added. Despite the use of generative AI to execute synthetic identity fraud more thoroughly, Timoney expressed optimism regarding combating the threat in the future. 'I'm not overly concerned that synthetic's going to run away,' Timoney said during the interview released Monday. 'I think that Gen AI is going to affect fraud in general on an upward swing. And then, ultimately, we'll use it to fight it.' Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Second-half comeback sees Benetton beat Ulster
United Rugby Championship Benetton (17) 34 Tries: Gallagher, Mendy, Spagnolo, Izekor Cons: Albornoz 4 Pen: Albornoz 2 Ulster (19) 19 Tries: Doak, Lowry, Stockdale Cons: Doak 2 Ulster failed to score a point in the second half as three yellow cards hampered their efforts in a 34-19 loss to Benetton. The province had scored three first-half tries through Nathan Doak, Mike Lowry and Jacob Stockdale. They led 19-10 after half an hour but David McCann, Nick Timoney and Stewart Moore were all sent to the sin bin in the second-half as the hosts came back to claim a bonus-point victory. With Irish internationals Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale and James Hume all back from injury for Ulster, Simon Easterby also released Rob Herring and Cormac Izuchukwu from Six Nations camp. Prop Tom O'Toole also returned from a six-game ban and a bolstered Ulster side made a strong start to the contest. There were only five minutes on the clock when, after an opening period of pressure, Doak touched down at the base of the posts from close range. A sharp line-out move from the visitors minutes later looked set to open the Italian side up again but instead produced a levelling try. Timoney palmed the ball down for a charging Stockdale to create the line-break but Ulster forced the offload and Matt Gallagher hacked forward three times to go down the other end and score. Argentina international Tomas Albornoz added the extras but would have a hand in Ulster restoring their lead as his pass was picked off by Lowry who went over untouched. Despite losing Izuchukwu to injury, Ulster extended their lead when the returning Stockdale exchanged possession with Doak and stepped inside Benetton's covering defence to mark his comeback with a try. Ulster's discipline was wavering, however, most especially at scrum time. And it was from a quick penalty after a Lowry knock-on that Benetton grabbed their second score through Ignacio Mendy just before half-time Referee Craig Evans lost patience with Ulster's lack of discipline shortly after the restart and sent back row McCann to the bin. However, with Timoney especially prominent during the period and Aidan Morgan providing a key turnover, Ulster survived with their two-point lead in tact. Their discipline did not improve and Timoney was yellow carded only minutes after McCann's return for a high tackle on Toa Halafihi. From the resulting penalty, Albornoz kicked the first points of the half to nudge his side ahead. Ulster were temporarily down to 13 when Moore's knock-on was judged to be deliberate and he too was shown a yellow card. Two men down, they were overpowered as Mirco Spagnolo went over from close range. After Timoney returned, Ulster thought they had reduced the arrears through Matty Rea only for the score to be chalked off for an illegal clear-out by O'Toole. Instead, the impressive Alessandro Izekor would score the game's final try with his powerful finish enough to ensure Benetton banked the bonus point to go along with their victory. Benetton: Smith; Mendy, Fekitoa, Zanon, Gallagher; Albornoz, Uren; Gallo, Maile, Zilocchi; Marini, Snyman (capt); Izekor, Zuliani, Halafihi. Replacements: Bernasconi, Spagnolo, Pasquali, Favretto, Kingi, Koroiadi, Casilio, Marin. Ulster: Moore; Lowry, Hume, McCloskey, Stockdale; Morgan, Doak; Boyd, Herring, O'Toole; O'Connor (capt), Izuchukwu; Matty Rea, Timoney, McCann. Replacements: Andrew, O'Connor, Wilson, Treadwell, Crothers, Shanahan, Flannery, Postlethwaite. Referee: Craig Evans (WRU)
