A survey has found that two Irish banks are among those with the most aggressive lending standards in the UK's commercial property market.
The survey of Britain's biggest commercial property valuation firms was carried out by Investment bank Merrill Lynch. It named AIB and Anglo Irish Bank - as well as HBOS and Royal Bank - as the most aggressive.
The note follows record bank lending to Britain's property sector and a post-summer downturn in commercial property which has already lopped 14% off capital values.
'The UK commercial real estate bubble is bursting and the banks are going to lose money. The question that investors want answered now more than ever is how good, or bad, has underwriting been and how much money will lenders lose as a consequence?,' Merrill Lynch said in a note.
A spokeswoman for AIB said it had a conservative lending policy. 'We would be well known as a very relationship driven bank with a conservative lending policy and while we may have done some big individual deals you need to look into the lending practice behind them which you'll find is conservative,' she said.
