iIn March 2020, Arena Capital Partners, a promoter of unregulated lending, offered an attractive incentive for investment brokers. Arena, which at the time had raised more than €90 million from Irish investors to buy wind turbines in the UK and Europe, said it would take its top ten brokers on an all-expenses paid four-day trip to Paris for the France v Ireland rugby match.
To qualify for the reward, financial brokers were given four months to place at least $500,000 worth of Arena loans.
The Central Bank of Ireland, which regulates investment brokers, introduced a ban on such incentives at the time. The bank said that “such benefits are designed to influence an intermediary to do business with a particular provider
