Shareholders face five-year wait for venture return

PROFITS in Britain were flat last year and shareholders face a longer-than-expected wait for a return from the joint venture with the post office there, Bank of Ireland said yesterday.

The bank's British financial services division, which includes its retail and business banking operations in the North and Britain, saw profits increase by €15 million to €388m, almost 30% of the total for the group.

However, the increase was down to a technical accounting change that released €15m from the division's reserves to pay for bad debts.