Anglo Irish Bank reported a forecast-beating 38 per cent rise in full-year pre-tax profit and said it was confident of a superior performance in 2007 and beyond.
Ireland's third-largest commercial bank posted pre-tax profit of €850 million in the year to end-September, with earnings per share up 32 per cent to 93.7 cent.
The average forecasts from a Reuters survey of six Dublin-based analysts were for pre-tax profit of €837 million and EPS of 92 cents.
Anglo said total lending had increased by 45 per cent on the previous year to €50.2 billion, with lending in Ireland rising 46 per cent, in Britain by 37 per cent and in the United States - off a small base - by 85 per cent.
Total income surged by 35 per cent to €1.2 billion - the first time group revenues have breached the €1 billion mark.
Anglo said lending work in progress - a barometer of current business and near-term prospects - in excess of €8.7 billion at end-September, up 45 per cent on the same period last year, pointed to a strong start to 2007.
"We are confident the bank will continue to deliver a strong, superior performance into the future," chief executive David Drumm said in the group's results statement.
Group Finance Director Willie McAteer said the bank would not argue with predictions that pre-tax profit would reach €1 billion in 2007.
Mr McAteer said prospects remained good in all the bank's key markets, particularly Ireland, where economic growth is outstripping the rest of Europe and the UK, which is expected to be "a key engine of growth in the future".
The bank will pay a final dividend of 10.84 cent, bringing total dividends for the year to 16.24 cent - an increase of 20 per cent.