MBNA Ireland profits fall 14.5% to €2.97m

MBNA’s credit card business in Ireland recorded pre-tax profits of €2.97 million last year, new figures show.

Last month, parent of MBNA Ireland Ltd, Bank of America announced that it was exiting the credit card business in Britain and Ireland with the loss of 750 jobs at its call centre in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Richard Burton said last week that there has been “positive expressions of interest” from potential buyers of the MBNA credit card operation as the Bank of America seeks to sell the business “as a going concern”.

Accounts just filed with the Companies Office show that pre-tax profits at MBNA Ireland Ltd fell 14.5% from €3.47m to €2.97m in the 12 months to the end of December after revenues decreased by 7% from €37.4m to €34.7m.

The directors state that net operating expenses for 2010 reduced from €35.6m to €33.3m “due to a combination of reduced people costs and other efficiency savings”.

The figures show that at the end of the last year the numbers employed by the company had decreased by 5% from 667 to 630, with staff costs reducing from €25.7m to €24.4m.

Aggregate remuneration for directors last year increased from €154,985 to €179,468.

The profit takes account of the non-cash depreciation cost of €2.5m.

The company had accumulated profits of €41.6m at the end of last year that contributed to total shareholder funds of €52.2m.

The figures show that the company’s operating profit last year decreased from €1.8m to €1.4m and rental income of €1.56m boosted profits to a pre-tax profit of €2.97m.