Major Irish lenders ‘ to restructure’

08/12/10 15:03 CET

economy

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Nationalised lenders Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society are reportedly to submit a joint restructuring plan to the European Commission.

A story in the Irish Times says they will propose that they be merged and then run down.

The plan, which must be completed by the end of March, was one of the conditions for Ireland’s bailout from the IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank.

The newspaper said senior executives from both institutions met officials from the finance ministry and the National Asset Management Agency, which was set up to manage banks’ bad commercial loans.

The Irish Times did not give a source for the story.

The plan will detail issues such as how to transfer Anglo Irish Bank’s 14 billion euros deposits and Irish Nationwide’s four billion elsewhere within the banking system.

The future of staff at both institutions and the fate of the building society’s 50 branches will also discussed.

A bailout of Ireland’s crippled banking sector is costing Irish taxpayers and the IMF tens of billions of euros after lenders aggressively courted property developers during the Celtic Tiger’s economic boom.

At the same time Britain’s finance minister George Osborne said a bilateral emergency loan from the UK

to Ireland is expected to go to a parliamentary vote next week.

Britain has offered Ireland a loan of 3.25 billion pounds (3.9 billion euros) as part of its contribution to an international bailout for the struggling euro zone member.

More about: Banking, Eurozone in crisis, Ireland

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