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Anglo reports losses of €12.7 billion

Sean FitzPatrick - Former chairman personally owed more than €85m by end of last year
Sean FitzPatrick - Former chairman personally owed more than €85m by end of last year

Anglo Irish Bank has reported a loss of €12.7 billion for the 15 months to the end of December last year, as it set aside just over €15 billion to cover loan losses.

€10 billion of the loan loss figure was linked to assets expected to be transferred to NAMA. Overall, the bank expects to transfer loans with an original value of €35.6 billion to NAMA this year.

Excluding money set aside for bad loans, the bank made an operating profit of €2.4 billion, though this included a gain of €1.8 billion from a restructuring of its debt.

The bank confirmed that the Minister for Finance had put a further €8.3 billion into the bank, as he announced in the Dáil yesterday.

EU approves Government's capital injection

Anglo Irish also said restructuring of its activities and the NAMA process cost it €42m in the 15-month period.

Anglo Irish Bank's annual report also gives a breakdown of loans to former directors and how much the bank expects to be re-paid.

Read the full Anglo Irish Bank report here

The figures show a total of just over €155m in loans to former directors of the bank was outstanding at the end of last year, but the bank has set aside almost €109m to cover the failure or possible failure to re-pay these loans.

Former chairman Sean FitzPatrick personally owed the bank more than €85m at the end of last year. But the bank's accounts show that it anticipates that almost €68m of this may not be re-paid.

The figure for former chief executive David Drumm was just over €8.3m, with the bank setting aside €6.7m for possible non-repayment. Most of this is linked to a loan given to Mr Drumm to buy shares in the bank. It is currently the subject of legal action by the bank.

Former finance director William McAteer owed the bank €8.5m, of which more than €7.6m is not expected to be re-paid. This €7.6m figures also relates a loan given to buy shares in the bank.

The figures also show that almost €13.9m was jointly lent to Mr FiztPatrick and former director Lar Bradshaw to facilitate an investment in oil exploration. The bank has set aside €11m to account for possible non-repayment of this. €3.1m was also lent to Mr FitzPatrick to fund a hotel investment.

Anglo has made provision in its accounts for the possible non-repayment of almost €22m of the €27.3m in loans to Mr Bradshaw.

Keeping Anglo open still best option - Dukes

The chairman designate of Anglo Irish Bank, Alan Dukes, has said keeping the bank open remains the best option for taxpayers, based on calculations available.

Speaking on RTE News, he said that even with increased funding requirements, it still costs less to keep the bank open. He said this would still be the case if Anglo was wound up over a period of ten years.

He said the bank would aim to get back as much money as it could from various outstanding loans, despite write-downs. He added that legal action was pending in a number of cases.

Today's report also reveals that the bank paid its management team €19m in the 15 month period, including €7m in salaries and €1m in directors' fees.

Former chairman Sean FitzPatrick managed to secure €131,000 in fees in his last few months at the bank. Mr FitzPatick, questioned by Gardaí over Anglo's collapse a fortnight ago, quit in December 2008 after taking home €539,000 for the year.

Anglo's former chief executive David Drumm was paid €1.3m for the 15 months up to the end of last year. His salary, fees and pension payment for the period included €654,000 in wages and benefits and a €659,400 performance bonus for his work in 2005.

Risk officer William McAteer, who was also questioned about activities at the bank, left the bank in January last year but secured €679,600 for himself, including a bonus for work up to 2005 worth €439,600.

Chairman Donal O'Connor has earned more than half a million euro for his work since coming on board, while new chief executive Mike Aynsley was paid a total of €329,000.

Staff costs for the 15 months to the end of last year were €155m after over 100 redundancies, and compared to €185m in 2008. Anglo said lay-offs cost the bank €13m.