BANK OF IRELAND RESULTS IN LINE WITH FORECASTS - Bank of Ireland has reported pre-tax losses of €190m for the 12 months to the end of December. That compares to losses of €950m in 2010. The bank said that its impairment charges on loans and advances to customers rose to €1.94 billion from €1.86 billion in 2010. The bank was the only Irish bank to avoid state control after private investors took a near 35% stake last July. Today's results from Bank of Ireland are in line with earlier guidance.
Bank of Ireland's chief executive Richie Boucher said the bank's businesses outside of Ireland have seen their losses reduced, but the bank's Irish business continues to see increasing losses on its mortgage book and SME lending. He said the bank's level of arrears on its property loan book stands at 5.6%, which is better than the industry average and below the sector-wide headline figure of 9.2% reported by the Central Bank last week.
The bank made underlying pre-tax losses of €1.5 billion in 2011 compared to almost €3.5 billion the previous year and Mr Boucher said the 2010 figure had been affected by the writedown of assets transferred to NAMA. This process has now been completed. However, the cost of the Government guarantee scheme rose as the costs are based on the duration of the guarantee and the relative credit rating of the sovereign and the bank.
Despite the challenges facing the country, Mr Boucher said we can be optimistic about Ireland's prospects. He says there are signs of recovery after the major restructuring that occurred while the country is also showing signs that it can manage to fund itself on bond markets. He said that while he not permitted to give an profit forecast for the bank, Mr Boucher says the bank is making good progress on deleveraging and reducing its costs.
