PTSB says it has raised 80 per cent of shortfall

Bank in ‘advanced planning’ with Deutsche Bank to raise capital from international investors

Permanent TSB said today that it has already dealt with 80 per cent of the €854.8 million capital shortfall identified in pan-European stress tests run by the European Central Bank.

The bank said it was in "advanced planning" with advisers from Deutsche Bank to raise capital from international investors in the "coming months".

PTSB has two weeks to submit its capital raising plan to the Single Supervisory Mechanism in Frankfurt, which will assume responsibility for financial regulation in the euro zone from November 4th.

PTSB's group chief executive Jeremy Masding said it has already addressed over 80 per cent of the €855 million shortfall that the ECB has identified under the adverse scenario to its balance sheet at December 31st 2013.

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This means the banks still has to raise €171 million to plug the capital shortfall identified by the ECB.

“The tests were based on our position at the end of December last and we’ve made huge progress since then on a number of fronts so we’ve already provided for over 80 per cent of the shortfall that the ECB identified,” Mr Masding said. “We look forward to bringing international investors on board now to raise the remaining amount which will leave the bank fully in line with the ECB requirements.”

PTSB said the result of the stress tests will have no effect on the day-to-day operations of the bank and no impact on customers.

“The tests confirm that Permanent TSB has more than enough capital to meet what the ECB describes as a baseline scenario and has made the right provisions for dealing with bad loans [the Asset Quality Review],” he said.

“Customers are unaffected by these tests are are not required to do anything as a result of today’s news.”

Ciarán Hancock

Ciarán Hancock

Ciarán Hancock is Business Editor of The Irish Times