BoI sells lending unit for €690m

BANK of Ireland sold a London-headquartered lending division to US bank Wells Fargo for around €690 million yesterday putting it closer to meeting its target of selling €10 billion in assets under an EU-IMF bailout.

Ireland’s banks have pledged to shrink their loan books, bloated after a disastrous binge on property, by nearly a third between 2011 and 2013 to cut their dependence on emergency European Central Bank funding after being largely shut-out of wholesale debt markets.

Bank of Ireland’s sale of Burdale, which sells loans secured against assets, means it has raised €8.6bn in divestments this year at an average discount of 7%, within a base case discount assumed in stress tests carried out under the EU-IMF bailout.