Impairment charge pushes National Irish Bank into red

National Irish Bank made an operating loss of €8m for the first nine months of 2012 after taking an impairment charge of €1.33bn for the period.

However, the Danish- owned bank posted a profit before impairment charge of €2.2bn for the first three quarters, up 35% compared with €1.6bn in 2011. Profit before tax was up 76% to €847m.

NIB’s Ireland country manager Terry Browne said: “The bank’s performance during the first nine months of 2012 was in line with expectations given the challenging, economic conditions.