PTSB posts loss of €266m for 2016 due to hefty exceptional costs

Permanent TSB, which is 75 per cent State owned, made an after-tax loss of €266 million in 2016, according to results published on Wednesday.

This compared with a loss of €425 million in 2015, a year when it booked exceptional costs of €460 million. The bank said it won’t make its target of paying a dividend from 2017 earnings, due to uncertainties created by the regulatory environment.

Last year’s loss included €414 million in exceptional costs related to the completion of its deleveraging programme, with the sale of its remaining businesses in the UK, and other restructuring costs.

The bank said it made a “headline” profit before exceptional items and tax of €188 million. This included a €29 million gain on the sale of its stake in Visa Europe.

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PTSB said its new customer lending increased by 14 per cent year-on-year to €591 million while its non-performing loans reduced by €700 million or 11 per cent from December 2015 to €5.9 billion.

Its fully-loaded core equity tier ratio remained “robust” at 14.9 per cent.

Some 30,000 new customers were acquired in the year while its net interest margin, excluding State guarantee fees, increased by 0.36 per cent to 1.48 per cent. The group’s adjusted cost-income ratio reduced by nine percentage points to 65 per cent.

Commenting on the results, PTSB chief executive Jeremy Masding said: "The bank is continuing to deliver its operational turnaround successfully and at pace. In doing so, we delivered a strong operating performance with significant trading profitability and the completion of a three-year deleveraging programme of over €9 billion that now allows us to focus exclusively on delivering profitable growth.

“Looking forward, we can build on a great franchise, a loyal customer base and a talented group of committed people. We have all the foundations for success so we must now deliver sustainable value for our customers and our owners - we are confident we will do that.”