Nama sales ‘no longer’ benefit State’s funding cost

The rapid sell-off by Nama of its property loans and redemption of its debt is providing a huge profitability kick for Irish banks, but is probably no longer benefiting the State’s funding costs, a leading economist has said.

Philip O’Sullivan, chief economist at Investec Ireland, said the redemption by Nama of the debt held by banks is proving a significant uplift to the lenders.

On Tuesday, Nama said it was sticking with its programme to dispose of assets and pay down debt. It aims to have redeemed all of its senior debt it provided banks for their heavily discounted loans by 2018, and close its doors completely by 2020.