BoI must play safe to build on a winning issue

After last year’s trail-blazing ACS, a lot rides on today’s encore, writes DAVID CLERKIN.

BANK OF IRELAND plays one of its biggest-ever poker games this morning, as it goes to the markets looking for up to €2 billion to fund its lending.

It’s a time for steel nerves for the bank’s Global Markets division, which handles its treasury and funding needs. But it’s not quite the leap in the dark of last September, when the bank blazed a trail by becoming the first Irish institution to issue an Asset Covered Security (ACS) in the first phase of a €10bn, five-year programme. Other Irish banks are expected to follow shortly.