Bank of Ireland reports positive start to 2022
Bank of Ireland said it has made a positive start to 2022 with its income, costs and capital all performing in line with expectations.
In an interim management statement, Bank of Ireland said that customer loan volumes were lower at €75.2 billion at the end of March compared to €76.3 billion at the end of December 2021.
The bank’s net lending increased by €0.4 billion in its Retail Ireland and Corporate and Markets in the first three months of 2022, but this was offset by UK deleveraging of €1.3 billion and foreign exchange and other impacts of €0.2 billion.
Bank of Ireland noted a significant increase in its green lending in the first quarter compared to the same time last year.
Its green mortgages accounted for 43% of new mortgage lending compared to 27% in 2021 while green business banking new lending accounted for 11% of total business new lending compared to 6% last year.
The bank said its liquid assets of €49.8 billion and wholesale funding of €22.2 billion at the end of March were largely unchanged since the end of 2021.
Customer deposits stood at €91.3 billion, €1.5 billion lower compared to December 2021, due to lower UK deposits and Corporate and Markets deposits.
But this was partially offset by continued growth in Retail Ireland deposits which rose by €0.9 billion.
Bank of Ireland said its non-performing loans decreased by €0.2 billion since December 2021 to €4.1 billion. This resulted in an NPE ratio of 5.3% at the end of March, down from 5.5% at the end of December.
The lender also said it continues to progress regulatory approvals on the Davy and the KBC Ireland portfolios.
“Earlier this month, we commenced a €50m share buyback programme, our first in almost two decades, with about €17m purchased as at 26 April 2022,” Francesca McDonagh, the outgoing Bank of Ireland Group CEO said.
“In addition, the Department of Finance announced a further extension of its share trading plan, with the Irish State’s shareholding in the Group now down to less than 5%. The ongoing sell-down is supporting positive outcomes for Irish taxpayers, the economy and the group,” she said.
“Overall business momentum remains positive, but we are vigilant to the impact of higher inflation on customer sentiment arising from higher commodity prices and exacerbated by the unacceptable invasion of Ukraine,” the CEO said.
“We have also taken a number of proactive steps to support the humanitarian response and stand ready to do more,” she added.
Bank of Ireland confirmed yesterday that Ms McDonagh would be stepping down from the CEO role in September after leading the bank for nearly five years.
She will take up a new role at Credit Suisse in October.
Shares in Bank of Ireland dropped sharply in Dublin trade today.
Article Source – Bank of Ireland reports positive start to 2022 – RTE
