The assets and deposits of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society are to be put up for auction immediately as part of the Irish government’s restructuring plans.
The Irish Republic’s debt management agency submitted plans for the two state-run lenders to the European Commission last week. They also include the merger of two banks which are to be wound down under the terms of the $85bn Irish bailout.
The Irish High Court has now given clearance to those plans.
“The NTMA [National Treasury Management Agency] will immediately commence an auction process to invite interested, fully licensed financial institutions to tender for Anglo and INBS deposits,” the debt management agency said in a statement. “It is intended that this process will conclude as quickly as possible.
“The process will also involve the amalgamation of Anglo [Irish] and INBS into a merged entity regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland,” the court added.
Separately, Anglo Irish said it expected to make a loss of €17.6bn (£14.9bn) in 2010. In a trading update yesterday, the bank said this would include a loss of €11.5bn on impaired loans transferred to the National Asset Management Agency. The loss included a provision of €7.8bn set aside to cover other loan losses.
The 2010 result would set a record for an Irish company, beating Anglo Irish’s €12.7bn loss for the 15 months to the end of 2009.
The bank also said deposits fell from €27.2bn at the end of 2009 to about €11bn at the end of last year. Borrowing from the European Central Bank and Irish Central Bank almost doubled to €45bn. The bank, which has received €29.3bn of state support, expects to transfer another €1.1bn of assets to Nama.
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