Central Bank disposes of €500m legacy Anglo debts

The Central Bank has sold a further €500 million of the boom-time debts racked up by the former Anglo Irish Bank. The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has announced it acquired the 2043 floating-rate bonds from the Central Bank and cancelled them.

The transaction is part of the scheme to eliminate the old Anglo promissory notes that were used to bail out the floundering institution at the height of the last financial crisis.

The promissory notes were replaced with government debt held by the Central Bank. The NTMA is now, bit by bit, substituting those government bonds currently held by the Central Bank with debt raised from investors, taking advantage of cheap lending rates on private markets.

Following the latest batch of bond swaps, the total amount outstanding on the 2043 bonds is €1 billion. There are other bonds outstanding, with maturities ranging up to 2053.

The overall nominal amount of the Anglo-related bonds still in existence is €20 billion. Following the latest transaction, a total of €5 billion of the floating-rate bonds have been extinguished.