British bank Northern Rock says the amount of money held by its Irish savers jumped by 50% last year to almost €2.3 billion. The bank offers savings products over the telephone and internet from its Irish office.
The number of Irish online accounts increased by more than 66% since the end of 2005 from just over 6,800 to more than 11,300.
Overall, the bank reported pre-tax profits of £626.7m for last year, up 26.8% on 2005. The performance was boosted by record lending of £33 billion, an increase of 22.7%. It said the UK residential lending market was 'buoyant' in 2006.
Northern Rock said its bad debts were under half the industry average, amounting only 0.4% of mortgage accounts.
