Ulster Bank losses rise to €650m

ULSTER Bank saw its operating losses increase by 80% to £566 million (€650m) in the first half of this year, driven by a significant jump in impairment charges to cover bad loans.

Ulster’s latest figures — published yesterday as part of Royal Bank of Scotland’s interim presentation — show the bank’s loan losses jumped from £499m to £730m, year-on-year, in the first six months of this year. This pushed its underlying operating profit of £164m into an operating loss of £566m.

However, the bank’s management put something of a brave face on matters, saying its underlying metrics remain strong and that customer numbers and deposits continued to grow in the first half despite the overall figures still being impacted by “the challenging economic climate across Ireland”.