Irish Life and Permanent shareholders have been told at the group's AGM that costs have been cut and there is now a 'roadmap' that should lead to significant growth and a return to dividend payments.
IL&P chairman Gillian Bowler said while Permanent TSB took the difficult and unpopular decision to raise interest rates, the bank was dealing humanely with its 8,000 mortgage customers now in arrears.
She also said consolidation in the industry was likely but that the process is moving at a slow pace.
Speaking before the AGM, Ms Bowler said the Garda investigation into Irish Life and Permanent's €7.5 billion euro loan to Anglo Irish Bank is very active and the group is co-operating as much as possible.
Earlier, Irish Life and Permanent said that arrears over 90 days in its Irish residential mortgage book continue to rise due to the increase in unemployment last year and into the start of 2010.
In an interim management update, Irish Life and Permanent said, however, that arrears under 90 days have levelled off in the three months to April. It said this may indicate that they are nearing their peak.
Arrears in the lender's UK mortgage book continue to slow down having peaked in the first quarter of last year.
IL&P said its businesses are generally performing in line with expectations. Its investment management business is performing 'strongly' while demand in the life business is mixed. Its banking operations have seen another fall in loan demand.
The lender said that significant progress has been made in its funding programme in the year to date. It has completed term debt issuance of €4.8 billion, which represents about 75% of its refinancing requirement for the year.
It said it continues to 'successfully grow' its retail deposit book in a very competitive market and growth in the book is head of target with a 7% increase in the four months to April.
IL&P said that sales of insurance and investment products are in line with expectations. It said that investment only sales for the first quarter are up over 60% on the first quarter of 2009.
It said its life business is seeing strong growth in single premium sales, up 39% in the first quarter and up 75% including Irish Life International. But recurring premiums were down 30%, mainly due to cuts in salaries and in numbers employed on corporate pensions schemes.
IL&P said the group remains strongly capitalised. After the Financial Regulator introduced new capital requirements in March, it said it expects its current capital resources are sufficient to meet the new targets.
The group also said that a number of opportunities will be created for IL&P as the five institutions participating in NAMA give their viability plans to the EU by the end of June.
Shares in Irish Life and Permanent closed down 6.3% to €2.39 in Dublin this evening.
