ULSTER BANK has recorded a loss of almost €195 million for the first three months of 2013 – the equivalent of €1,500 every single minute.
The British-owned bank made a profit of €90.25 million in its everyday operations – but saw its gains eroded as it set aside €285 million to offset losses from non-performing loans.
Just over a third of that amount – €106.9 million – in household mortgages, with €54.6 million written off in commercial investments and €16.6 million in commercial developments.
The bank’s parent group, the Royal Bank of Scotland, was pleased with its performance, however, noting that its losses were “a material improvement” on the €289 million it had lost in the final quarter of 2012, and only just over half of the €368 million it lost in the first quarter of 2012.
“Ulster Bank delivered a significant improvement in operating results with reduced impairment charges, in line with the recent stabilisation of the macroeconomic environment in the Republic of Ireland, driving a 33 per cent reduction in operating losses,” RBS said.
It said the falling impairment charges – which were down by 36 per cent compared to the same period in last year – indicated that “credit trends in Ireland are turning a corner”.
That 36 per cent reduction was the best performance of any bank in the RBS group. Ulster Bank had also posted a “material improvement” in its retail and commercial operations, RBS said.
In all, the RBS group reported an operating profit of €1.585 billion (£1.334 billion) for the first three months of the year – good news for the British taxpayer, which owns over 80 per cent of the bank since a series of recapitalisations in 2009.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say