Moody’s Investors Service (NYSE: MCO) have lowered the outlook for Ireland’s banking system from positive too stable.

The credit ratings agency said banks’ earnings will come under pressure from low interest rates, with asset risk continuing to fall.

Profitability will decline,” said Moody’s analyst Arif Bekiroglu. “Irish banks’ high reliance on net interest income makes them sensitive to the low interest rate environment. High exposure to low-margin tracker mortgages, rising costs due to increased debt issuance, revenue losses from sales of problem loans, and Brexit uncertainty are further headwinds for profitability.”

Expenses will remain high, as IT costs surge on a move towards digitalization, regulation and pending fines.

The operating environment should remain stable, Moody’s noted, forecasting real GDP growth of 3.2% in 2020 and 3% in 2021. The agency said growth should be supported by rising employment and investment.

Brexit could weigh on GDP, but Moody’s doesn’t expect an “economic shock”.

“Global economic uncertainty increases tail risk due to Ireland’s open economy, which hosts many multinational corporations,” Moody’s added.

The agency continued: “Meanwhile, banks’ asset risks are set to keep falling, as economic growth and low rates support borrowers’ finances, and as banks continue to sell and restructure problem loans. Enhanced risk management and stricter Central Bank of Ireland affordability guidelines should prevent excessive risk taking, holding back new problem-loan formation. Moody’s also expects capital ratios to hold steady, and funding and liquidity to remain strong.”

The performance from the Bank of Ireland (LON: BIRG) however seems to defy the change made on Tuesday.

Bank of Ireland recorded €1.5 billion of net lending growth in the nine-month period, which is 800 million higher than in the same period a year ago.

Bank of Ireland commented that the economic growth in its core markets of Ireland and UK remained “positive”, despite the “ongoing uncertainties” related to the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

Just one week ago, Moodys lowered the UK Banking Sector outlook from stable to negative. It seems that analysts at Moody’s still seem more optimistic on the Irish Banking sector compared to the UK one.

Certainly looking at the slow performance from FTSE100 listed HSBC (LON: HSBA) who have seen a slowdown in trading following an operational overhaul, neither the UK or Irish sector is looking too promising amid political and economic turmoil currently dominating news headlines.

Dominos Pizza Group PLC (LON: DOM) have updated the market saying that their Chair is set to leave in December.

Domino’s as a brand have seen a mixed few months, the Polish section of the firm saw its share spike on an excellent set of H1 results, and the performance of the American division (NYSE: DPZ) has remained solid across the year.

The Group noted that System Sales grew 10% during H1 2019 on a year-on-year basis, with 80% of delivery sales coming from online orders. From March 2019, the Company said like-for-likes had been ‘building’, such as 6% growth in like-for-like order between March and June 2019.

Additionally, the firm reported in October that it would be quitting its international operations. It said that though the financial results have stabilised, international system sales remain “disappointing”.

“Although the financial results have stabilised, the performance of our international business remains disappointing,” David Wild, Chief Executive Officer, commented in a third quarter trading update.

Today, the firm have announced that Chair Chair Stephen Hemsley will step down before the end of the year.

Dominos said that they will continue the search for his successor and for a new chief executive.

Domino’s said: “The board would like to place on record its appreciation of Stephen’s exceptional contribution to the development of Domino’s. Since joining in 1998, he has seen the company through its IPO on AIM and has taken it from a market capitalisation of £25 million to almost £1.5 billion today, and from nearly 100 UK stores to over 1,250 stores spanning the UK, Irish, and other international markets.”

The FTSE250 listed firm said that Senior Independent Director Ian Bull will become interim chair while the search continues.

Domino’s added: “The search for a new chairman is progressing, and will be followed by the appointment of a new CEO. Further announcements will be made in due course.”

Dominos have had a relatively successful trading time in financial 2019, despite plans to quit international operations which may have alerted shareholders.

American rival brand Yum! Brands, Inc saw their shares in red as the firm alluded to missing profit expectations.

Additionally, UK based Restaurant Group (LON: RTN) saw their shares crash at the end of November.The group saw a slow period of trading however, performance from Wagamama was noteworthy.

Wagamama reported strong second quarter gains, as revenues rose 11% year-on-year to £93.5 million, with like-for-like revenue growth coming in at 6.3%.

Certainly, Dominos will have a long list of candidates who will be looking to fill the vacancy. Shareholders can be optimistic about the future, and should look forward to good reading.

J D Wetherspoon plc (LON: JDW) have pledged to create 10,000 new jobs over the next four years as it expands its presence in the British pub market.

Wetherspoons have seen a very positive financial 2019, as the firm saw their shares rally in November after an impressive quarterly update.

The company reported higher demand for coffee, pink gin, real ale and breakfast. Additionally beer sales rose significantly as British consumer trends changed by the quarter.

J D wetherspoon’s like-for-like sales rose 5.3%, which exceeded both market and analyst expectations.

Today, the FTSE250 listed firm has pledged to create 10,00 jobs as it plans to invest £200 million to open new branches in the UK and Ireland.

The expansion will likely increase the size of Wetherspoon’s workforce by 25%, comes as many rivals have seen a mixed period of trading.

The combination of slow trading, high wages and increased rent rates has seen some UK pub chains struggle.

As a result of these factors, recently Greene King (LON: GNK) was bought out by Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-Shing who owns CK Asset Holdings.

Additionally, Slug and Lettuce pub chain owner Stonegate agreed to buy Ei Group in a deal valued at £1.27 billion.

Wetherspoon updated the market by saying that they plan to open between 50-60 new pubs and hotels.

These new branches will be located within in small and medium-sized British towns and cities but also in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Birmingham and Leeds as well as the Irish cities of Dublin and Galway.

“Wetherspoon will not be entering into any deal like everyone else,” a company spokesman said.

Tim Martin, who is the company’s biggest shareholder has been flooding news headlines since the Brexit referendum has been an advocate of Brexit.

“We are looking forward to opening many more new pubs as well as investing in existing pubs over the next four years,” Martin said in a statement.

New Wetherspoon pubs will open in places such as Bourne, Ely, Diss, Felixstowe, Newport Pagnell and Prestatyn, the company said.

Once again, it seems that Wetherspoon has pulled the rabbit out of the hat with the statement updating the market today.

Shareholders should be very impressed with the update and the pledge made this morning, and certainly this does impose a stamp of domination onto the British pub chain market.

Supermarket sales growth slowed over the past 12 weeks, new data by Kantar revealed on Tuesday. Indeed, year-on-year supermarket sales grew by merely 0.5% as political uncertainty surrounding the upcoming general election weighed on shoppers, Kantar said. Indeed, with Brexit delayed yet again, parties now campaign to win votes ahead of Thursday’s general election. Kantar added that shoppers seem to be delaying their preparations for Christmas following a dull Black Friday shopping period and wet autumn. The data shows that shoppers have made on average one less visit to the shops over the quarter compared to the same period a year prior. “We’re yet to see consumers ramp up their spending in the run up to Christmas and, as anticipated, Black Friday only brought a limited boost for the grocers,” Kantar said in its report. “The number of people claiming to take advantage of Black Friday this year fell to 53% from 57% in 2018, with signs of ‘promotion fatigue’ among consumers, an increased scepticism regarding the value of the deals on offer, and some retailers pulling back from the day all together.” Kantar’s data revealed that Christmas puddings and seasonal biscuit sales were down 16% and 12% over the past four weeks, compared to the same period the year prior. Tesco (LON:TSCO) performed best out of the larger supermarkets over the period. It recently began to offer a subscription customer loyalty scheme, though Kantar said that it is too soon to determine whether Clubcard Plus has had an impact, and sales dropped by 0.8%. Meanwhile, sales at Sainsbury’s (LON:SBRY) declined by 1.1%, at Asda (NYSE:WMT) by 1.9% and at Morrisons (LON:MRW) by 2.9%.

Santander (LON: BNC) have joined the long list of financial firms who have slashed the pension perks of their senior management teams.

Shares of Santander currently trade at 298p (-1.88%). 10/10/19 11:14BST.

The firm announced that UK Chief Executive Nathan Bostock will have his pension allowance cut from next year.

The bank has told shareholders that it will look at investor concerns to rein in senior management perks.

Bostock’s pension allowance, valued at £558k will be reduced from 35% of his base pay to 22% and to 9% in 2021.

This will equate to a cut of more than £400k across two years, following activism from shareholders to make these cuts.

He received a total pay package worth £6.4 million in 2018, including a final £1.8 million payment for share awards he gave up when he left Royal Bank of Scotland.

The move to cut pensions comes at a good time for Santander shareholders, and the firm has seen a positive few weeks of trading. At the start of November, Santander announced that they had invested into Ebury, which sent shares up.

Ebury is a trade and foreign exchange facilitator for small and medium-sized companies and have boasted impressive figures in their recent trading years.

Santander join rivals such as Standard Chartered who announced that they will cut the pension allowance for their Chief Financial Officer and Chief Executive Officer will be cut following discussions with shareholders.

Winters’s pension allowance will be reduced by 50% to £237,000 from £474,000, while Chief Halford’s pension allowance will also be cut by 50% to £147,000 from £294,000.

Barclays made a similar announcement saying that they will make similar strategic changes, in an update published at the end of November.

Finally, Lloyds Banking Group joined the movement when the global bank announced that they cut the pension allowance paid to Chief Executive Antonio Horta-Osorio, by £228,000.

Horta-Osorio, the longest-serving of Britain’s top banking bosses, pocketed a contribution of around 419,000 pounds this year, equating to 33% of his £1.27 million base salary.