Central Bank sells 42% of Anglo Irish-related bonds

The Central Bank has sold a further €500 million of bonds dating from a restructuring five years ago of the State's bailout of now-defunct Anglo Irish Bank.

The Central Bank received €25 billion of Government bonds in February 2013 under a restructuring of so-called promissory notes, which had been used by the State during the financial crisis to rescue Anglo Irish, which was subsequently renamed Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC).

IBRC had been using the promissory notes as collateral for emergency central bank funding. When it was put into liquidation, the State replaced these notes with long-term bonds of up to 40 years in duration.

ECB pressure

The Central Bank has been under pressure from the European Central Bank to sell these bonds at pace, to ease concerns that the refinancing amounts to monetary financing, which is prohibited in the euro zone.

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The latest transaction, announced on Wednesday, brings to €10.5 billion the amount of bonds that have been sold to date to the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), which has duly cancelled the notes. That equates to 42 per cent of the par value of the bonds.