Shareholders in Bank of Ireland have voted overwhelmingly in favour of its participation in NAMA after an extraordinary general meeting in Dublin earlier today. The vote was almost 99.9% in favour of taking part in NAMA.
At the meeting, shareholders attacked the institution's management of recent years. One shareholder asked: 'How can we trust you in future?' and called for the bank to resume paying a dividend to shareholders. Another shareholder, Peter Matthews, a former executive with ICC, called for the bank to back demands for a bank inquiry.
Another shareholder said 'there are far too many fat cats' at the financial institution and called for the bank to cut costs.
BoI chairman Pat Molloy told shareholders the bank had reduced staff numbers by 1,700 and cut costs by 10% over the past 12 months. He said an inquiry was a matter for Government.
In an opening statement to shareholders, Mr Molloy said the bank expected to receive a discount of no more than 30% from NAMA on the loans it will transfer to the agency.
Mr Molloy said BoI was set to transfer up to €16 billion of loans linked to property to NAMA, with half of these outside Ireland. On the basis of a 30% discount, it would receive around €11.2 billion from NAMA for these loans.
Mr Molloy said there was still some uncertainty about this figure as the calculations would be done on a loan-by-loan basis.
He told shareholders the transfer would reduce its customer loans by up to €14.6 billion - €16 billion less the amount it had already set aside to cover losses on them.
Mr Molloy also said BoI would address the issue of raising new capital after it knew the outcome of talks with the EU on its restructuring plan, and the impact of NAMA.
He told the EGM the bank 'sincerely appreciated' the support of the Irish Government and taxpayers and was working hard to rebuild 'damaged relationships' with shareholders and customers.
