EBS has warned that the interest rates it charges for variable mortgages will have to go higher, although chief executive Fergus Murphy told RTE News this would not happen before the end of the year.
Mr Murphy said EBS was doing all it could to keep rates low, but he pointed out that similar charges in France, Germany and the UK were 50% higher than in Ireland.
So far only one lender - Permanent TSB - has increased its mortgage lending margins although there is an expectation that others may follow.
On NAMA, EBS is transferring all of its €527m land and development loan book along with €400m in associated loans. Mr Murphy said this process was well advanced, but he insisted EBS did not yet know the discount or 'haircut' that NAMA would apply.
Of the €527m loan book, Mr Murphy said 45% of the development book was not performing. After the NAMA process, EBS will require around €300m in fresh capital.
He was speaking as EBS reported a pre-tax loss of €8.8m for the first half of this year after taking a hit of €43.9m due to bad loans.
Stripping out the impaired loans charge, income for the period was up almost 10% from a year earlier to €35.1m.
The society said it had cut costs by 8.3% compared with a year earlier, while it had increased its share of the new mortgage market to 18.5%.
EBS said there had been encouraging signs of an uplift in the world economy, while it had also seen an increase in mortgage applications in the second quarter of the year.
Its net interest income fell 4.5% to €71.8m due to higher interest rates for deposit accounts and the €3.5m cost of the Government guarantee.
