BoS Ireland profits rise by 28%

Bank of Scotland (Ireland) this morning announced pre-tax profits of €272 million for last, a rise of 28 per cent compared with…

Bank of Scotland (Ireland) this morning announced pre-tax profits of €272 million for last, a rise of 28 per cent compared with 2006.

The bank said that advances to customers increased by 26 per cent to €29.8 billion while customer deposits increased by 22 per cent to €9.7 billion in 2007.

The bank said its performance in terms of volume and profit was strong across all divisions and said that new lending grew by 16 per cent.

According to its results the retail business in its branch network, intermediary homeloans and asset finance enjoyed a strong year as lending grew by 31 per cent to €8.9 billion. The bank said it had attracted 72,000 new customers in 2007.

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Mark Duffy, Chief Executive of Bank of Scotland (Ireland), said: "2007 represented our 15th consecutive year of profit growth and our first as a full service bank.

"This result was driven by an excellent performance from our business banking operations and strong demand in retail banking, where we attracted over 72,000 new customers, which was considerably ahead of our expectations."

"Whilst we anticipate tougher operating conditions in 2008, we continue to enjoy strong demand for our products which underpins confidence that our business model is well placed to take advantage of these conditions."

The bank's UK parent - Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) - today posted lower than expected annual profits and warned of ongoing uncertainty in financial markets.

HBOS reported a 3 per cent increase in full-year underlying profit before tax and raised its dividend payout by 18 per cent but expects market conditions to remain uncertain in 2008 with house prices flat.

The bank also took a £227 million credit crunch-related asset write-down, up from the £180 million it announced in December.

"The current turmoil in global financial markets introduces considerable uncertainty into the plans of all financial institutions," it said.

"We are planning on the assumptions that market conditions will remain uncertain throughout 2008."

For the year to December 31 st, 2007 underlying profit before tax was £5.708 billion. This compares to a consensus analyst forecast of £5.7 billion and £5.5 billion made in the previous year.

Pre-tax profit was down 4 per cent at £5.4 billion.

Over the year customer lending grew 14 per cent to £430 billion, while customer deposits increased 15 per cent to £243.2 billion.

Group net interest margin was 163 basis points, down from 172 basis points.