State-owned bank reports €2.5bn loss for last year

State-owned AIB made a loss before exceptional items of €2.5bn for 2012, which was a significant improvement on the €8.2bn of the previous year.

Chief executive David Duffy said AIB is on target to return to profitability in 2014.

Mortgages arrears remains the main source of loan losses, although the trend improved between 2011 and last year. A total of 200,000 residential mortgages are fully performing, which is 84% of its book. Of the 16% in arrears, 9.1% are in arrears by over 90 days.