The National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) has begun the transfer of part of the first tranche of €10 billion loans from Anglo Irish Bank, it has been confirmed.
The discount applied to Anglo’s first tranche is expected to be close to 55 per cent, subject to additional data checks and foreign exchange rates at time of the final transfer.
A spokesman for Nama said the loan were being acquired in two phases in order to “reduce operational risk”.
“Over the past weekend, the agency acquired loans with a nominal value of €4 billion. The transfer of the residual Anglo loans in the first tranche (some €6 billion) is expected to be completed next weekend.”
Taking the €4 billion into account, loans with an aggregate nominal value of €10 billion have been acquired by Nama from five institutions – AIB, Bank of Ireland, Anglo Irish Bank, Irish Nationwide and EBS.
Nama said that when the residual of Anglo’s first tranche is fully completed, the total transfer will be €16 billion and the overall discount is expected to be of the order of 49 per cent.
The Government said last month that banks would need up to €32 billion in extra capital between them to cover losses on discounted loan sales to Nama and still meet new regulatory requirements.
Nama, which was set up last year to rid banks' balance sheets of the legacy of excessive lending that took place during a decade-long property bubble, then said the average discount on a first tranche of loans would be 47 per cent.
That figure was much more than the 30 per cent average initially estimated by the Government last year for all loans to be acquired.