PTSB prioritises restructuring plan

Permanent TSB is set to survive and will become a more competitive bank, Irish Life & Permanent (IL&P) management said at the group’s annual general meeting yesterday.

The troika ultimately has the final call on Permanent TSB’s future, but the bank’s management held talks with representatives of Ireland’s bailout partners on their last visit here in April.

At yesterday’s meeting, IL&P chairman Alan Cook said those talks had been intensive but very positive and arrived at a skeleton plan that would see Permanent TSB finally split from the rest of Irish Life and progress as a smaller retail bank in Ireland, with an asset management unit and a buy-to-let mortgage book in Britain.