Ulster Bank plays down NAMA transfer speculation

ULSTER Bank has played down speculation that some of its loan assets could be sold to the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), as has been reported.

The bank doesn’t wholly qualify for NAMA as it is technically foreign-owned, being part of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) group and has already transferred some assets to Britain’s Asset Protection Scheme.

However, it was reported yesterday that some of Ulster’s bad loans could still end up with NAMA. RBS chief executive, Stephen Hester was quoted from a recent analyst call as saying: “We haven’t decided whether to put it in there or not, but it is still only a small element of Ulster Bank.”