Accounting change likely to put dent in bank’s profits

BANK of Ireland’s 2005 profits would fall by about €127 million if the new financial accountancy standards for Europe were applied this year.

Bank of Ireland, which will present its first full set of accounts under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for the year to March 2006, made a pretax profit before exceptional items of €1.27bn in the 12 months to the end of March 2004.

The impact is expected to be minimal in terms of the bank’s overall profits.