Banks have assets but any sale would mean losses

Banks based in this country still have a considerable amount of assets to dispose of although any sale in the current market environment would mean heavy losses as prices remain at distressed levels.

The pillar banks — Bank of Ireland, AIB, and Permanent TSB — had to offload a total of €34bn to meet deleveraging targets agreed with the troika.

Bank of Ireland has sold €10bn worth of assets at a haircut of roughly 8%. AIB has divested €17bn of assets, well within the losses assumed by the Central Bank’s prudential capital assessment review conducted in Mar 2011.