Irish banks issue €16.5bn of government-backed bonds

IRISH banks issued €16.5 billion of government-guaranteed bonds in the past two weeks, which are eligible as collateral for European Central Bank funding.

The three-month notes for Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland and Irish Life & Permanent were listed on the National Treasury Management Agency’s website.

Spokesmen for each of the lenders said the issues are a rollover of existing so-called self-held bonds they started issuing in January to use as security for ECB loans.