Britain to give PMS €199m loan

THE British government will provide a loan of £175 million (€199m) and £25m in cash to help the Presbyterian Mutual Society, the Northern Ireland-based church-backed lender that went into administration in 2008.

“The collapse of the Presbyterian Mutual Society has indeed caused great hardship and people have been left without their money for far too long,” the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said in parliament. The funds will be provided to the Northern Ireland executive.

The society went into administration in November 2008 owing its 9,500 members €350m following a run on its deposits.