IL&P shrinks first half losses by €40m

IRISH Life & Permanent (IL&P) managed to cut its first half losses by over €40 million — to €10m — with management saying the group is on course for sustained recovery.

However, the group’s retail banking arm — Permanent TSB — continued to make heavy losses (albeit marginally down, on a year-on-year basis) and the level of arrears amongst its mortgage customers increased by 28%, on a like-for-like basis, during the first six months of the year.

That latter development now means that roughly 9,000 out of the bank’s 180,000 mortgage customers are in arrears — an increase mainly driven by the overall rise in the country’s unemployment levels.