WEEKEND DIGEST:US investment firm Apollo Global Management is to buy the Irish credit card business of MBNA in a move that will save 250 jobs the Sunday Times reports.

Marc Rowan of Apollo told a Citigroup conference in New York last week that it was about to buy the Irish operation of a US credit card bank, the paper said. The future of the other 750 jobs at the MBNA operation at Carrick-On-Shannon - which look after the British business hinge on a separate deal.

Virgin Money is seen as a possible buyer.

Businessman Denis O’Brien is the front runner to buy Siteserv, the business support group, according to a report in yesterday’s Sunday Independent.

A group involving Mr O’Brien is said to have tabled a bid of €50 million for the company. IBRC, the former Anglo Irish Bank is expected to write off some of the €150 million that it is owed by Siteserv, says the report.

A number of trade buyers and private equity groups are also reported to have shown an interest in Siteserv which employs 2,000 people in Britain and Ireland.

The company has a three year deal worth €60 million to provide support services to BSkyB in Ireland but has seen its revenues fall from a peak of €150 million to €92 million last year as the economy faltered.

Davy Stockbrokers and KPMG are handling the sale .

Irish Banks are beginning to ramp up mortgage lending according to the Sunday Business Post which cited mortgage broker sources.

Bank of Ireland and AIB are “aggressively” pushing loans into the market in order to increase the number of transactions and improve price stability.

This would potentially reduce the impairment charges that the two banks will have to take on their mortgage books, according to the report.

The banks have already approved “many more” loans than last year with one mortgage broker reporting its busiest two months since the housing market peaked in 2007.