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Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher said 2011 was a "challenging" year. Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland

Bank of Ireland reports 80 per cent drop in losses

Preliminary results for 2011 show that losses before tax fell to €190m, compared to €950m in the previous twelve months.

BANK OF IRELAND has reported significantly lower losses for 2011, with pre-tax losses of €190 million for the twelve months to December.

The bank’s preliminary results for 2011, published this morning, compare the losses to a similar figure of €950 million in the previous year.

BoI’s Irish retail outlets generated profit of €285 million, with its UK operations taking in €106 million, while corporate and treasury operations raised just under €600 million.

The bank lost €574 million in operations at its group centre, however, and took a €31 million hit through consolidating its businesses.

Impairment charges – that is, loans which were simply written off – and advances to customers were up from 2010, however, with €1,939 million of losses this year compared to €1,859 million the previous year.

The absence of any transfers to NAMA, however, meant the bank’s underlying loss before tax was down from just under €3.5 billion in 2010 to just over €1.5 billion in 2011.

Group chief executive Richie Boucher said 2011 had been “another challenging year”, but one in which the bank had made “significant progress”.

“We have remained focused on our key priorities of developing our relationships with our customers whilst strengthening our capital, funding our balance sheet, actively managing our credit and other risks and rigorously managing our costs,” Boucher said.

The accounts showed that the bank’s core Tier 1 capital ratio was up from 9.7 per cent to 15.1 per cent this year – mostly thanks to private investment and state recapitalisation.

The bank is the only native Irish institution to remain outside of majority state ownership, with the government keeping a 15.1 per cent shareholding in the institution.

Read: Banking crisis: Central Bank paid out €30m in consultancy fees in 2011

More: Noonan considering ‘outside expertise’ in quest to cut bankers’ wages

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14 Comments
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    Mute ciaran ward
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    Feb 20th 2012, 9:33 AM

    Sick and tired of hearing about banks did this banks did that …… Bail out the people who voted you in and save houses not overpaid puppets

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    Mute Rob
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    Feb 20th 2012, 9:46 AM

    right then…………..

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    Mute David Higgins
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    Feb 20th 2012, 10:48 AM

    It’s in all our interest and particularly for depositors that the banks deal with their losses and are financially stable. This is good news.

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    Mute Rossa O Connor
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    Feb 20th 2012, 9:43 AM

    Yes and the tax payer has to pick up the 80% losses.

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    Mute Rob
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    Feb 20th 2012, 9:45 AM

    BOI is outside of state control – so no the tax payers should worry a lot less about this than AIB / IBRC etc….

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    Mute 1 Human Being
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    Feb 20th 2012, 10:10 AM

    Think they got a bit of an old bailout now it wasn’t much just a half a billion or so. We will still continue to piss money into the Irish bank resolution corporation also known as black hole bank aka the one concurrent government refuse to let go to the wall aka still no prosecutions four years later aka that Anglo Irish bank.

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    Mute LoyalIrish Citizen
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    Feb 20th 2012, 11:53 AM

    Irish Tax Payer reports an 80% increase in losses.

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    Mute Rossa O Connor
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    Feb 20th 2012, 12:03 PM

    Wait for the red thumbs!

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    Mute Mark Rodgers
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    Feb 20th 2012, 1:00 PM

    I can’t wait for those days when Banks reported increased quarterly profit because when this happens next it will be a clear signal that all is right with our world…economically.
    I also wish to drag myself away from the quicksand of doom and gloom that the misery brigade seem to wallow in on these pages. Their philosophy is to drag us all down to their own level of negativity.
    The brighter economists and psychologists will tell you that this behaviour tends to become self fulfilling.

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    Mute Martin Healy
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    Feb 20th 2012, 2:17 PM

    Hopefully they start to “really” lend to people and business,so we can get some growth in the domestic economy.

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    Mute Brendan Cunningham
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    Feb 20th 2012, 9:36 AM

    Well that’s alright then!…..?

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    Mute Mark Rodgers
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    Feb 20th 2012, 9:35 PM

    But do you want them to lend to no hopers! Surely we have had enough of that!
    Apparently the vast majority of applicants that are being refused credit facilities are in such a category!
    However difficult that may be for our economy we don’t want to see any more failures.

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    Mute James Ohare
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    Feb 20th 2012, 1:22 PM

    Did I just see on RTE lunctime news that BOI is holding €1.1 blln of Irish Government Bonds. So thats whay they have been doing with all their spare cash…buying bonds to make more profits. And thats why they are not lending to small business or those who would like to buy a house. Now it all makes sense…greedy bankers proving what they do best….screwing the Irish people.

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