National Irish Banks have today posted a pre tax loss of €341 million for the first half of the year.
However the bank which is owned by Danske Bank Group were forced to set aside loan impairments of €367 million.
Nation Irish Bank, slowly starting to recover.
Taking into account the forced loan impairment charges NIB have essentially reported a €26 million operating profit which is down 32% from the same period last year. Income has fallen 17% to €84 million thanks to reduced customer demand. Costs have fallen 6% to €58 million.
“These results reflect the continuing difficult economic and banking market conditions. Our focus is on completing the restructuring programme we started last year and our work in this regard is on track,” NIB chief executive Andrew Healy said.
Mr Healy said National Irish Bank had no plans to increase mortgage rates at this time.
“These are tough times to be operating a bank in Ireland and we are fortunate to have the unflinching support of a strong parent in Danske Bank. We have taken early and decisive action to reduce our costs and to reposition National Irish Bank for a market which is being radically reshaped.”
NIB’s loan book stands at €10 billion currently, which is down 5% compared to this time last year. Commercial property loans make up a large portion of it’s loan book at €3.3 billion. Unsurprisingly this area sees most of the the loan impairments of €367 million.
However while these figures seem poor they are going in the right direct. NIB in 2009 made a pretax loss of €661 million, which Mr Healy described as possibly “the worst year in Irish banking history”.
NIB’s parent bank, Danske Bank has strong figures to report. Despite setting aside more than €1 billion for loan impairment charges, recorded a profit of €420 million in the six months to June 30th.
