Majority of Lloyds’ Irish loans impaired

Lloyds Banking Group, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, says two thirds of its €24.8bn of loans in Ireland are unlikely to be repaid in full following the property crash.

About £16.4bn (€19.7bn) of loans to Irish borrowers were impaired at the end of last year, the London-based Lloyds said yesterday. That is up from 53% at the end of 2010.

Lloyds, which reported a wider-than-estimated loss of £2.8bn (€3.4bn) for 2011, shut its Irish unit in 2010 as losses soared. It is running down its remaining assets. The worst sector was commercial property, where 90% of the bank’s £10.9bn of loans were impaired at the end of 2011.