IBRC Loses 724m Euros In Six Months

The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide, has reported a pre-tax loss of €724m for the first six months of this year.

It's significantly higher than a loss of €105m for the same period last year, but nowhere near the record losses posted the year before that when Anglo Irish Bank smashed records for the biggest loss in Irish corporate history.

Chief executive Mike Aynsley said most of Anglo's US property portfolio had been disposed of in 2011 and that was reflected in their results last year.

He said the bank was now back to "business as usual" which involved the eventual orderly wind-up of the bank, and a recovery and collection strategy that involved going through remaining loans on a day by day basis.

He said the six month results reflected the continuing deterioration in property market conditions in the UK and Ireland.

But he said they showed that the bank had reduced its balance sheet size, cut operating costs and was ahead of schedule in winding down by 2020.

Just over one thousand people continue to work at IBRC including 256 who work in the bank's NAMA unit, dealing with loans who have been transferred off IBRC's balance sheet to NAMAs.

There are plans to reduce staff numbers further.

Mr Aynsley also rejected claims that the IBRC had a vendetta against Sean Quinn, the former billionaire who faces jail for putting assets beyond the reach of the IBRC.

He said the bank was simply involved in trying to recover money it was owed.

Asked about Seán Quinn's claim that the IBRC had destroyed what was a profitable company, he pointed out that losses recorded by the Quinn Group in 2009, the last year in which the group was under Mr Quinn's full control, were the largest ever in Ireland for any company outside the banking sector.

"Clearly, it wasn't a profitable business," he stated.

The Quinn family responded by calling his comments "sad and pathetic" in a statement.

"Anglo is fully aware of the enormous successes of the Quinn Group prior to the banks illegal lending to support its own share price," they said, "Notwithstanding that criminal charges have now being brought against former executives of Anglo for these illegal loans the bank continues to stand over them in defiance of Irish and EU law, maintaining an untenable position.

"Mr Aynsley's time would be better served justifying the enormous professional fees and salaries being incurred by the bank, not to forget his own salary of over €850,000, rather than defending the indefensible," it added.